Daniel Ricciardo took a thrilling victory at the Hungaroring, powering his way past Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in the final few laps to take his second win of the season.

Alonso, in one of the heroic drives of the season, was two laps short of winning for Ferrari on worn-out soft tyres, but managed to hang onto second.

Hamilton claimed third place having started from the pit lane, despite intense pressure in the final laps from team-mate Nico Rosberg on fresher tyres.

But he refused a Mercedes team order to let Rosberg past for strategic reasons, with the German needing to make one more stop in the final third of the race.

“I was in the same race as Nico and if I let him past and he had the opportunity to pull away, then he would have come back and overtaken me,” said Hamilton. “I didn’t understand why the team asked me to do that as he didn’t get close enough to overtake and I didn’t want to lift off and lose ground to Fernando.”

At the start of an incident-packed race, in damp conditions caused by a pre-race shower, Rosberg got away well and maintained his lead as the field cautiously approached Turn One. Vettel, though, lost out, being passed by Bottas on the exit of the first corner and then by Alonso as they swept through Turn Two. The Red Bull driver was soon back up to third place, however, making his way past the Ferrari in Turn Five.

At the back, Hamilton was in trouble. He hit the brakes to take Turn Two but lost control of the rear end of the car. He slid towards the barriers and was lucky not to sustain any damage. He rejoined and despite complaining of poor brake response he began to make his way through the order, rising to 13th by lap eight, by which time Rosberg was nine seconds clear of Bottas at the front.

On the next lap Marcus Ericsson lost control into Turn Three, hitting the barriers hard in his Caterham. The safety car was deployed and the field from P5 back came into the pits, with the majority taking on slick tyres. One the following lap the front runners, who has passed the pit lane entrance when Ericsson crashed, made their visit to pit lane. By the time the order had settled behind the safety car, Ricciardo was in the lead on soft tyres, ahead of Button, who was on intermediate tyres. Behind them were Felipe Massa, Rosberg, Kevin Magnussen (who did not pit and was on his starting intermediate tyres), Jean-Eric Vergne, Vettel, Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg and in P10, Sergio Perez. Bottas, meanwhile, had dropped to 11th.

While the safety car was deployed, Lotus’ Romain Grosjean also crashed out at Turn 3, forcing a longer stay on track for the pace car.

The safety car came in at the end of lap 13 and Button, told to push as rain would not be reappearing, immediately used the better grip he had in the greasy conditions to take the lead. He soon came into the pits, however, to discard the intermediate tyres that were quickly degrading.

Behind them, the order was changing and Rosberg was going backwards. He was passed by Vergne and Alonso and by lap 17 was down in fifth place, with only Vettel between him and team-mate Hamilton in P7.

Ricciardo, meanwhile, was picking up his pace in the drying conditions. By lap 20 he was setting fastest laps and was five seconds clear of Massa. Alonso was inside DRS range of second-placed Massa and pressuring his former team-mate hard. Vergne, as ever impressing in the varying conditions, was three seconds down on the Ferrari. The major battle, though, was between Vettel and Hamilton. On lap 21, the gap was just 0.3s and Vettel was in heavily defensive mode. Rosberg, though, wasn’t able to use the fight to his advantage, with the gap to Vettel continuing to hover around the one second mark.

Then on lap 23 the safety car made its second appearance as Sergio Perez lost control on the exit of the final turn and spun into the wall on the pit straight.

Leader Ricciardo pitted on lap 24 behind the safety car, the Red Bull driver taking on more soft tyres. Second-placed Massa and Bottas (P8) also pitted on the same lap, with both taking on medium tyres. Massa rejoined in seventh behind Ricciardo, with Bottas in P13. The stops left Alonso in the lead from Vergne, with Rosberg third ahead of Vettel and fourth-placed Hamilton.

The safety car left the track at the end of lap 26 and Alonso held his lead. He soon began to pull Away from Vergne, with the Frenchman becoming something of a cork in a bottle. By lap 31 he was 3.3s down on Alonso and was holding Rosberg up.

Rosberg tries to change that on lap 33, pitting for soft tyres. On track Vettel almost replicated Perez’s crash, losing control on the kerb at the exit of the final corner. His car swapped ends but he narrowly missed hitting the wall. He dropped to seventh position. Vettel was then told to nurse his soft tyres until the end of the race.

Ahead, Hamilton managed to squeeze past Vergne at Turn 4 around the outside, causing the Frenchman to pit soon after for new tyres. As those ahead of him began to pit for new tyres, Ricciardo rose up the order and started to push, setting another fastest lap on lap 35 while in P3.

Rosberg, after his second stop, was now in P10 and 27 seconds down on second-placed Hamilton. The German was told that his title rival now had time to make his second stop and emerge in front, so Rosberg attempted to push. He got past Bottas on lap 38 but his times were still slower than Hamilton’s and the Briton was quickly on the radio to tell his team he felt he could remain on track at the same pace for a further couple of laps.

Hamilton finally came in on lap 40 taking on medium tyres. He emerged in P5 behind Alonso (who had made his second stop), but crucially he was in front of Rosberg. At the front Ricciardo led once more, from Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, who had only made one stop. The Finn was soon in for more soft tyres.

Massa made a third stop on lap 46 taking more mediums. That promoted to Alonso to second, 15.8s behind Ricciardo and 2.4s ahead of Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver was being pressured by his team-mate, however. Rosberg was just a second behind and the Briton was soon told not to hold the German up as they worked through different strategies.

After five laps of Rosberg not being to close enough in the turbulent air, Hamilton was asked to allow Rosberg past on the main straight on the next lap. Acceding to the request, though, would see the Briton lose precious time and he told his team that he would not slow down to that degree to allow Rosberg to pass.

Ricciardo, meanwhile, was concerned about the state of his rear tyres and though the team wanted the Australian to race the set until the flag, the Red Bull driver couldn’t hold them together and was forced to pit for soft tyres on lap 55. He rejoined in fourth place but with the benefit of significantly enhanced pace.

Mercedes then decided to shift things, bringing Rosberg in on lap 57 to take on used soft tyres. He emerged in P7 ahead of Vettel and was told he needed to put in “a quali lap, every lap”.

The order, then, with 13 laps to go was Alonso, three seconds clear of Hamilton, with Ricciardo, on fresh tyres, a further 3.7s back. Bottas had risen to fourth ahead of Massa, Raikkonen and Rosberg, who was just half a second behind the Finn.

As Bottas pitted, Rosberg made his way past Raikkonen down the inside into Turn One on lap 60 take fifth place. He cleared Massa on the following lap, but 22 seconds down on Ricciardo and with the front three determined to hang on to their crumbling tyres, could the German make up the ground?

The answer was yes. By lap 66 the German was just 11 seconds adrift of Ricciardo and lapping three seconds faster than the Red Bull.

The Australian though was determined to make a bid for victory. After several failed attempts to pass the hyper-defensive Hamilton, Ricciardo eventually made a great move around the outside of Turn Two to pass the Mercedes and then on lap 68 he muscled past Alonso to claim the lead and, soon after, his second grand prix win of the season. Behind, Hamilton was pushing Alonso just as hard, attempting to put a car between him and the hard-charging Rosberg.

With two laps to go Rosberg was just 1.5s behind his team-mate. The German almost got past with a move around the outside on the final lap, but Hamilton moved very wide through the corner to deny his team-mate, who had to settle for fourth place.

Behind the top four, Massa took fifth for Williams ahead of Raikonen, Vettel, Bottas, Vergne and in P10 Jenson Button.

* Look out for an exciting new content stream on JA on F1, starting on Tuesday – the Jules Bianchi Column, which will take readers behind the scenes of the life of an F1 driver and help bring them to get closer to the sport.

Why is it hard to believe when Nico was going to come out 30 seconds behind Lewis after his final pit stop!!! Nico didn’t get any favour for being the lead driver either. So, Lewis should apologise to the team for all of his conspiracy theory over the past few weeks.

What conspiracy theory? The fans have pushed that theory, not lewis. You’re one of the irrational ones reading something into a situation that doesn’t exist. Maybe you’re the one that should appologise for such ridiculous drivel.
On a positive note, it was a fantastic race.

Merc demonstrated just how stupid those team orders are. if hamilton had slowed down for rosberg as the team wanted then rosberg would have finished ahead of hamilton. how stupid would that have looked?

Uhh!! What??
What consiracy theories
All he said is that *WE must do better*
On what planet does that mean conspiracy theories?
Are you telling me that he s wrong to say they should do better or implying something by it, because i don’t see it myself

You are wasting your breath here Formula Zero, to many Hammy fan boys that can’t see the wood for the trees. These would be the same fanboys that were booing Vettel for passing Webber against team orders…shoe on the other foot now and they they put their blinkers on. Rosberg was on a different strategy and Hammy should have obeyed the team…’HIS EMPLOYERS’. Again he shows the petulance of a child, where Rosberg shows the true class that he undoubtedly has.

Rubbish! Nico was no where near Lewis so the call was out of order. It would have been different if Lewis was clearly holding Nico up at that stage of the race, he did say “if Nico gets close I will let him pass but I’m not slowing down”.

Rosberg showed his class? At what point in the race did Rosberg demonstrate his class? Certainly not with his driving – pole to 4th demonstrates a distinct lack of class as a a driver. Or perhaps you are referring to his radio messages to the team – crying to be let through by Hamilton as he couldn’t manage an overtake, or telling tales about another driver who apparently ignored yellows – ignored yellows where? They were all behind the safety car. No, wait, you must mean his post race interviews – did you ever see such a grumpy pumpy face – no class there either I’m afraid!

hamilton is a proper racer as he understands what racing is about. team orders are plain stupid. if the car behind is faster he should made his way forward and stop asking the team to make the way for him to pass. what’s the point in racing just to slow down for your teammate to go ahead? imagine if hamilton had followed their graze idea, rosberg would’ve finished ahead of him today and extended his championship lead because the team engineered it.

Getting more and more difficult to respect drivers, including multiple world champions, who will run someone off the road “defending” when a fundamental principle of sportsmanship is allowing competitors racing room. That’s a part of F-1 which has always been questionable IMHO.

@ garret, there are rules governing all aspects of racing in f1 and none of it has anything to do with your respect am sure. i like it when drivers pass on the outside and like it when the driver on the inside runs them wide when they try. do you not like that?

It’s a team sport. If Hamilton had let Rosberg past then Rosberg would have probably won, which would have been a better result for the team. Drivers don’t do the ‘team’ thing, but today Mercedes didn’t have the bottle to get the best result, in fear of upsetting Hamilton. Toto Wolff said as much.

Mercedes are way ahead in the constructor’s points, Andy. So crushingly far ahead that they should let the drivers just race each other. Asking HAM to lose a couple of seconds by letting ROS past would be unfair as HAM would need every second at the end of the race, given that by then he’d be on worn-out tyres.

Asking drivers to let their team mate past is more the style we’ve come to expect from Ferrari and RBR.

@andy, well hamilton didn’t drive for the team today. he drove for the drivers championship. what would the drivers’ championship table have looked like if hamilton had let rosberg passed and ended up 4th?
hamilton us a true racer, all the other drivers should drive for their teams and allow hamilton to drive for the drivers championship.
hamilton should ask the team to explain to him why they asked him to let rosberg passed. and i’d love to hear their explanation. may be james can ask them when he next get the chance.

Hamilton’s stupidity cost the Mercedes TEAM a sure second and possibly a win. He will be gone from Mercedes at the end of this year and good riddance. Let him take his petulant driving and attitude elsewhere.
Fernando Alonso was the best driver out there today.

So based on your expert analysis, blue flags should be ignored then? I mean the drivers are lapping the slower cars which means they are faster, they shouldn’t just slow down and let the leaders past…. Hamilton is an employee of Mercedes. When you’re being paid £20 Million a year you should do what your employers say. Nico managed to do it last year when he was told to stay behind Lewis, so I fail to see why Lewis thinks he is bigger than the team.

Bill, are you serious? Niki LAUDA personally hired Hamilton you realise? Do you know who Niki LAUDA is? Rosberg was no where near Hamilton when they asked him to pull it over to the side and give Rosberg right of way…. Whilst Hamiltons “petulent attitide” isnt all that fantastic, he is a sensational driver.

@bill, there is no need to insult hamilton. if he was stupid there is no way he’d make it into f1 against all odds. and there is no way he would’ve refused to follow those ridiculous team orders. rosberg didn’t understand why hamilton wasn’t slowing down for him to pass and asked they team why hamilton wasn’t slowing down for him. if you don’t understand at least stop being insulting.

Brilliant race, congrats to Daniel, he’s looking the real deal, fantastic alonso, great save by lewis, that move on vergne saids everything about lewis and nico, lewis bang straight away a totally balls to the wall move on the outside, while his team mate just plods behind vergne lap after lap, only trying drs half hearted moves down the straight, rosberg really needs to man up on his wheel to wheel racing, he’s so conservative, vettal makes a stupid mistake, but after 4 dwc, I suppose he’s due a average season, as for the maccas not his biggest fan, but jenson derserves better, anyway im of to sunny st ives for the summer break, everyone have a great 4 weeks till battle recommences

Well Lewis did the right thing and why let your rival pass you when you are racing him, Nico couldn’t even overtake a Torro Rosso, what class? And then a team order to move his team mate? So daft from Mercedes, the lead car privileges were lost and with the constructors almost out of reach I want to see them racing. Nico looked like a bad loser and for all the bad luck Lewis has had, he comes back the next day and pulls a rabbit out of his hat, his dismal qualifying has made races interesting. I would like to see Nico at the back of the pack…just to appreciate his race craft…otherwise he seems to be a Vettle kind of driver, doesn’t know what to do when he is in traffic or changeable conditions. A word from their boss for those that missed the update.

Rosberg/Hamilton vs Vergne. Hamilton overtook Vergne when his tyres were shot, Vergne pitted straight after he lost that position. Wake up people. Hamilton sat behind Vettel for how many laps even when on fresher tyres and Vettels were much older.
If Hamilton was so brilliant, why could he not find a way past Alonso, even when his tyres were shot to bits, nor could he defend Ricciardo…

The problem with the Mercedes AMG radio message to Hamilton﻿, telling him to let Rosberg through [because he's on a different strategy] is that the team knew these drivers were ultimately racing for finishing position, regardless that Rosberg had another pitstop to come. So they were, in effect, attempting to directly influence the race result in favour of Rosberg, rather than let those drivers race.

I think that the idea was to take less risks, you know avoid Nico to go through risky overtakes in the final laps which could go wrong (fail to overtake, accidents) which could minimize the teams total points. I’m sure that had Lewis allowed Nico through, when he comes behind after the pit the drivers would be instructed to finish the race in formation.

It does sound ridiculous when one sees it from Hamilton’s point of view. Merc were probably thinking of a 2,3 finish, if not a 1,2.

Yes, Hamilton’s car failure in qualifying rid him of the opportunity to fight for pole and have the team service his best interest in the race by merit.

If you look at it from Nico’s point of view, Lewis’ car failure wasn’t his fault. He did have pole at the end, and had built a 10-second lead before the first safety car.

But, I personally liked how it turned out the way it did without team orders. In the context of the championship, no driver was harmed too badly. Merc had to right the wrong of Lewis’ car breaking down yesterday, which wasn’t Merc’s fault, either. 3, 4 finish was not a bad result for the team at the end. It was also good to see Alonso in the podium and Ricciardo win no. 2. I’m not British, German, Australian, Spanish or from Monaco. This is how I see it.

I think mercedes should do the decent thing and make a public apology to hamilton. they failed him in qualifying, favouring rosberg, he fought his way back and they wanted to favour rosberg again? ridiculous! rosberg should also be apologetic to hamilton.
I was impressed by vettel’s recovery from that spin. he stopped millimetres from hitting the barrier and carried on like nothing had happened. that was impressive. oh and he said “anything could happen” rather than is normal “everything is possible”.

agree. Nico would have finished at least P2 if not P1 had Lewis let him pass. Lewis would have kept P4 even he couldnt pass Alonso, so Merc as a team would have gained another 5pts at least. Too bad Lewis didnt see the bigger picture for his team. he only worried about himself.
in another sense it wasnt too bad for either the team, or Lewis/ Nico in the end. Nico maintains a healthy lead over Lewis. I wouldnot try desparately to pass Lewis if I were in Nico’s shoe, what was the point of getting taken out of the race if I could at least harvest some good pts?

It’s hard to believe that a team would pat their driver all those millions and then do anything that would stop him winning. However todays race did smell a bit of manipulation. This generally cause a team to fail, ala Ferrari. So this shows that Red Bull were not manipulating thing against Mark Webber, he simply wasn’t fast enough! Sad but true.

I guess Rosberg will ignore team orders now, knowing there is no punishment from the team. I wouldn’t see him intiating this though. I feel it would be Hamilton who first had to ignore orders, and it has happened. Remember Rosberg in Malaysia last year, dutifully obeying Brawn, “Remember this guys.” Staying behind while thinking his loyalty will be a benefit. Financially, yes, for a future championship? Perhaps not.

Saying there will be no punishment. I wonder if anything at all will happen “behind closed doors?” Reduced proposed salary on a contract extension? That would cause tension, something any team will want to avoid.

[mod] When Vettel ignored team orders at a time when he was battling Webber for the championship, the uproar was deafening. Now Hamilton clearly disobeys team orders, ad everyone gets their knickers in a twist. I think Hamilton was right to ignore team orders, but so was Vettel.

But this also shows that Mercedes have always employed team orders, and Hamilton benefited from them in his 4 wins in a row. Mercedes has been employing team orders under the form of preferred strategy to the lead driver, to maximize team points. This is what the team orders in Hungary were all about, getting the maximum points for the team. If Hamilton had complied, Mercedes would have gotten more points than they did. It just so happens that this would have benefited Rosberg, but in the same way that strategy benefited Hamilton in earlier races.

Didn’t Lewis slide off the track? He really showed his ‘class’ in this race, ignoring an order to keep his teammate in the race. Contrary to popular opinion, they’re not just racing each other because the merc is so far ahead, Ricciardo won the race because Lewis did what he did! I know we should love his fighting spirit but he just annoys me with his attitude of “I deserve to win and no one else does”.

A true sportsman would have allowed Rosberg to continue on his race. I think Nico was right not to push too hard, he retained his lead and kept things close, despite the conditions (he didn’t slide off!), safety cars and strategy changes.

If think they were true fans they never would have left in the first place, but maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, agreed it was a great race but what made it even better is that unless I’m mistaken there was not one single driver penalty handed out during the entire race out which is freaking fantastic and a very welcome change, so to whoever it was who made the final call to tell the stewards to lay off a bit and let the drivers race I say a very big well done, thank you and keep it up

Seebee, I was genuinely VERY close to giving Ricciardo Daniel my vote, but in the end I went for Lewis because I think his success during the race was proportionally greater as a result of having to overcome much, much more serious adversity.

I’m really becoming a fan of Ricciardo, however, and He’s obviously got such a bright future in F1. He radiates a genuine enthusiasm and honesty that’s also similar to Lewis’s passion for racing, but w/o as much up-down emotional turmoil (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing – it makes Lewis who he is and humanizes him in a way that is completely foreign to Alonso, for example).

I’m rooting for Lewis to win his second WDC, however, and he’s my undisputed favorite driver. The more people hate on him, the more I want to defend him from unfair & unjust criticism. Lewis is the most honest competitor and transparent human personality on the grid. It’s easy to empathize with him (for me) b/c his fight to succeed in his sport and find love & happiness in life resonates with me. I hate how people run him down for being emotional … as if the totally uninspiring, pure corporate robotic droning of a media-trained generic non-entity like Rossi, for example, is what compels people to become fans of F1…

Yeah, Lewis is always star of the race by passing everyone in the field by having a car that is faster than the rest of the field, to the same degree that F1 cars are faster than GP2. Yes, that is really overcoming adversity. Hamilton can only win in the best car, and even then…

Apparently it was! I missed it live – I haven’t got Sky F1. By all accounts it was a typical rain affected chaos and confusion race……….a great race as usual on a wet but drying track. Can’t beat a drop of rain on a circuit……………….
Nothing like watching a classic race………….and nothing like missing a classic race live! Oh well, just to have make do with the highlights to find out the full story of how the race unfolded………….
Well, congrats to one Australian and curses to another! (Rupert Murdoch FYI…………)

PS Just to clarify, my curses is not aimed at the Commonwealth of Australia and its people, more against Rupert and his SKY organisation!
As I haven’t seen the race on screen I can’t comment, but it was by all accounts a great one. Just imagine if free to air F1 coverage was available to all European and English speaking countries eh? A topsy turvy race like today can light the spark of a casual viewer into a committed one. I remember when Jenson won here in 2006 and it seemed to create a new interest in F1.
The difference is today, a potential new customer base for Formula 1 was unable to see the race live, and therefore unable to be enthralled by it, therefore unlikely to capture the imagination of a whole new customer base.
Go figure.

I can’t find said curses so I have a sneaky feeling they might have been modded as I’m also guessing there were a few choice words in there

I gather from this though that the race wasn’t shown on the BBC which is a real shame for all you guys who couldn’t see it without having to fork out for Sky.

To all the Aussies that complain about Ten’s coverage and the fact we get ads during the race (and there have been a few of you) I say be very grateful for what we do get because while it could be a little better sometimes it could also be a damn sight worse.

I missed the race too.
F1 should follow the lead of moto GP. On line coverage and you can enjoy classic races again and again. The powers that be appear to be blinkered to the new viewing habits of fans, and I don,t just mean the young fans. I’ve been watching races for 30 years and I would pay an on line subscrtion gladly as all my tv, be it films drama or sport is on line.

I came in from a great Sunday out to watch the BBC highlights and didn’t feel the slightest remorse at my refusal to hand over money to Murdoch. My line is if you read any of his papers or buy any of his TV you’re complicit in phone hacking, handling personal effects from crashed airliners etc. etc.

What a race – again. We have more good races in half a season than the last 3 or 4 put together.

Feeling really Gutted for Lewis as it seems that he has to fight his team along with the Compettion..Very cheeky of Nico to even ask for a team meeting when he himself is at fault for not having overtaken JEV earlier.

P.S: James I am trying to use the Radio 5 live via Tunein however i am shut off saying that Live 5 is not available in your area (i.e Dubai).

RE Random 79: Yes, the BBC didn’t show Hungary live, same as Germany last week. As the last couple of Hungaroring races have been dull processions, it probably thought ah we’ll skip that one. They didn’t bank on rain though!
I don’t blame the BBC – if it has been dry, it would have been a nice stroll in the park and a tugid procession. All rain affected races, irrespective of the circuit, are great because strategic planning goes out the window!
The next couple of races in Belgium and Italy are being shown live. Russia is due to be shown live, but if its cancelled – big if – then probably Brazil will be shown live instead.
RE David F: Is TSN in Canada a “terrestrial” television service (like CBC) or is it a subscription service?
I remember when ITV had the F1 contract and supplied feed for the Commonwealth countries of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia (Singapore?) and Canada. Ah those were the days…………….

I really dislike watching the highlight show. You miss so much of the drama of an unfolding race. I was forced to do so today (family commitments) and it just confirms how abysmal it is that Sky (UK) have the races.

Try vipbox live streaming. It is a bit fiddly trying to get the right one as it changes each time, so make sure you start half hour before race starts. The picture is little bit fuzzy, but it is all there.

Make sure you get the one with the sky sports logo in the top right. Otherwise with other providers (EPN?) you get a million adverts.

I am in the UK without sky and this is how I watch F1 live when BBC is not showing it live.

they seemed to be more focussed on nico winning the race,rather than lewis,eventhough lewis could have won the race,if they had of put softs on his car.putting mediums on his car was a strange decision.

They were just tryin to maximise the strategy on both cars. They didn’t know that the best strategy was a 3 stop otherwise Hamilton would have been on the same strategy. They just wanted to get both cars to the finish as quickly as possible and as it turns out Hamilton probably cost Merc a victory today.

This is a terrible comment, suggestion being Merc bbqd Lewis’ car on purpose and then ask him to move over. It was a fun race but to be completely clear, Lewis stopped Nico from winning today, which was kind of his right as he started ahead and didn’t spin into the grass on lap one! Forgetting the pit call, Lewis would have shown class as a sportsman if he’d let Rosberg do his race.

Mercedes job is to maximise results for both drivers, especially in a race where they are not guaranteed of winning or finishing 1st and 2nd. Whoever thinks that they would Intentionally favour one over the other is delusional.

Take nothing away from Ricciardo and Alonso, amazing performances in inferior cars!

100% agreed mate. The comments on this site get worse every time I read them. I want analysis and insight, not borderline racist and psychotic suggestions that the Germans are trying to sabotage Lewis, it’s becoming insulting. I love the strategy as much as close racing, it’s great to watch, but honestly F1 will be better when the throw the 2way radios in the goddamn bin!

And Australia gets free to air live TV coverage (on Channel 10) of ALL the races!
Make the most of it!
Trust me, nothing worst than reading comments on forums like this that “wasn’t that a fantastic race” and you haven’t been able to watch it live!
The sooner Mr E is told to close the door behind, the better………………

Simply WOW, what race!
I was so happy to watch this race today…..
Congratulations to Daniel, he is such a great guy and I wish him well. Alonso phenomenal, most probably the best driver out there. Ferrari must be in pain to even think they can lose him. Ferrari is just nothing without Alonso today, a dull team.
As for Hamilton coming 3rd – I was hoping yesterday that something happens today and Lewis finishes ahead of Rosberg. When I saw the wet track, I thought that this is the opportunity really. Think about Rosberg….he did not even try to overtake Vergne whereas Hamilton was taking every opportunity. Rosberg is lacking this soul of a racer, which doesn’t mean he is not a great driver.

“Think about Rosberg….he did not even try to overtake Vergne whereas Hamilton was taking ever opportunity. Rosberg is lacking this soul of a racer, which doesn’t mean he is not a great driver.” < < < < < < THIS!!

Nico is obviously a competent professional F1 driver who has his seat on merit and has "earned" his previous victories (except for Monaco where he obviously cheated in quali to get pole, delegitimizing his Sunday performance).

However, I doubt he will ever have the same level of amazing fan support that Hamilton enjoys and he will likely never achieve the same level of sporting legitimacy, genuine celebrity, marketability and branding value.

Why?

B/c, like you said, he has never manifested the same passionate, soulful humanity that Lewis radiates, which facilitates his connecting w/ millions of incredibly loyal and engaged fans around the world, and motivates his driving as if it is his lifeforce.

Nico will not – cannot – be a True Champion like Lewis Hamilton, and Ayrton Senna before him.

These men are Giants of Life – not just motoracing. NR cannot even aspire to be elevated into this pantheon. But that's ok – he remains a very successful mere mortal.

Team orders confirm conspiracy theory. How do you ask the guy that had a failure in qualifying and had to start from the pits to move over for the pole guy? What is Paddy exactly doing at Mercedes? Is he there to engineer another 2012 for Lewis?

looks like they’ve got sawdust between their ears. what is the point going racing. vergne was sat in front of rosberg for so many laps and he couldn’t even ask the toro rosso team to ask vergne to let him by. come on rosberg, you let me down today. you’re fast but you need to toughen up a lot.

He’s there to engineer maximum points for the team so they can wrap the constructors championship ASAP.

LIke David Croft said at the end of Qualifying on Sky, why would Mercedes pay Hamilton massive amounts of cash to get him to come to Mercedes if they were just going to end up kneecapping him? They could’ve just paid for a genuine No. 2 driver if they wanted to favor Nico.

Its just bad luck in the end, and frankly….it will make him a much more well rounded driver in the long run if he can go through all this bad luck, and still turn it around on race day with consistent performances.

Hamilton cost Mercedes the win with his petulant defiance of the team.

I don’t want to hear anything else about Hamilton’s luck. He effectively gained 15 points on Rosberg by refusing to allow a teammate on a completely different strategy through, he should have been out of the race when he put his car into the fence at the start.

If Mercedes don’t address this then it shows who Mercedes really want to win the championship. Nico will have no hope.

If they could win by pitting Rosberg for new softs, then why not pit Hamilton at that time, for new softs, for the win? Was he not leading at the time, giving him the preference of stops? By this logic, pitting Rosberg a lap latter should have put them in the running for a 1-2? So… why then cut Hamilton out of the strategy?

I don’t suppose the ‘disobedience’ of team orders will go down very well at Mercedes as it probably did cost them a win (for Rosberg). Hammy needs to watch out in case Merc decide to replace him with more of a team player – like Sebastian Vettel that well known follower of team orders for example

Sorry German Samurai, Rosberg lost the race when he couldn’t dispatch with Vergne, that’s how he ended up behind Hamilton in the first place. And mind you, as soon as Rosberg ducked into the pits Vettel made his mistake and Hamilton was able to make pretty quick work of Vergne, in spectacular fashion. To expect help from your closest rival is a bit naive, he should have been working to pass Hamilton instead of expecting him to be let by, but looking at his pace I suspect he didn’t have it in him to really pass Hamilton at that point with those tires, the cars were too evenly matched.

@German Samurai
I think you should go and have a word with yourself ! Mercedes will win the constructors championship regardless of todays result, and its all very well to say Hamilton should have been out of the race with his spin but he wasn’t was he, maybe if Rosberg had got closer to Hamilton he would not have had to ask the team to help him get passed, get real man, Rosberg needs to man up, he’s had more than his fair share of things going his way and still needs team orders to beat his team mate.

Mercedes have the WCC pretty much wrapped up already. So it boiled down to the team asking Lewis to let Nico beat him. If that’s not favouritism, then show me what is.

If Nico could manage the tires better, then perhaps he could’ve gone for the inter-option-prime strategy, instead of inter-option-option-option. Then of course I’m sure he would’ve let Lewis through with no fuss, seeing as he has a great history of doing so (GER’13) … NOT!

@PeterF. Well said. I was thinking that during the race. Mercedes could have pitted Lewis for softs, then Rosberg. Both would likely have finished 1-2 or 1-3. I think Lewis would have won. I’m interested in JA’s post race analysis.

Realistically Red Bull won’t pass Mercedes in the constructors and Ricciardo isn’t going to be world champion this year. So Mercedes might want whichever driver is currently behind to get the better of the situation. Nico’s gearbox problem at Silverstone could have happened to either car. If it had happened to Lewis the championship would – pretty much – be over. That would mean Mercedes out of the limelight while and the a loss of interest in the championship. Lauda and Wolff have said “We let them race” and either someone on the pit wall went against that or the policy has changed. I’d guess that the computer told them their best chance of getting a win would be with Rosberg in front. So points on the day (with whatever prize money implications that has) or increase the value to sponsors by keeping the championship arrive.

Hamilton’s line was – as I understand it – if he closes up on me, I won’t block him, but I’m not parking and throwing the race to make it easy for him. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. Vettel’s breach of the “multi 21″ order chasing down and passing Webber when told to hold station was flagrant. But when did Rosberg get in a position to pass ? Only on the last lap – where he knew (again) that he should have made the pass and didn’t.

The guys are fighting over a championship, and if Rosberg can’t do it with the help of Hamilton’s four car failures in Australia, Canada, Germany, and Hungary (against his one – Britain) then I’m sorry to say he probably doesn’t deserve any more help.

“Vettel’s breach of the “multi 21″ order chasing down and passing Webber when told to hold station was flagrant. But when did Rosberg get in a position to pass ? ”

He was one second behind Hamilton. Rosberg was in a position to be let by and would have caused a minimal disruption to Hamilton’s race. It’s very, very hard to pass a car with the same characteristics in Hungary unless they make a mistake. Hamilton cost his team a win today.

I expect John Watson to come out in the media and tell Niki Lauda to suspend Hamilton for one race for disobeying a team order. I doubt he will because Hamilton’s British so it’s different eh?

The team’s goal is to win the race. Where each driver is in the championship is irrelevant unless you are trying to manipulate results to keep the title fight close.

When Vettel passed Webber in Malaysia last year he did so because he had championship points on his mind. 2010 and 2012 came down to the final races of the year and Vettel didn’t want to take any chances.

A lot of people in Britain owe Vettel a huge apology for the things they said about him after Malaysia last year.

Hello German Samurai. I agree with you in principle. Lewis did say he’d move over if Ros came close. Ros did come close initially, but backed off to save his machinery. Neither driver trusted each other at that point, since the championship is on the line. In theory, Merc would have had a good chance of finishing 1,2. Lewis’ car breaking down on qualifying didn’t make the race ideal for team order intervention. It would’ve been unfair to Lewis.

Having said that, I’ll support you whenever posters find it convenient to slander German drivers just for being German. We all favor different drivers, yet some here want to not only favor their driver, but also ridicule other drivers in the process to feel good, I suppose. Someone has to defend the German drivers. These are the things I’m talking about:

Vettel is an average driver. Schumacher lucked into his 5 WDC with Ferrari. Nico’s drive was pale, etc. Some give credit to Hulkenberg for his drives. If he gets a top drive and wins, the same default German thrashing comments will resurface. Sad but true!

‘Hamilton cost Mercedes the win with his petulant defiance of the team’

I don’t really see how Hamilton cost Mercedes the win, Rosberg couldn’t overtake Vergne, so I really don’t see how Rosberg would have overtaken Hamilton and Alonso – 2 drivers that have displayed the best defensive driving this season – and he wouldn’t have got anywhere near Ricciardo.

And to say he petulantly defied the team is a bit unfair – Vettel saying tough luck and Massa making pretty similar comments could possible be described as petulant. He came back on the radio and said that if Rosberg can get close enough I won’t defend but that he wasn’t going to park he’s car and compromise his meteoric rise to where he was and mean that he’d have no chance of attacking Alonso at all. Rosberg couldn’t get close so it was again his loss by not doing a good enough job.

It was completely unfair of the team to ask him to move over and the comments coming from the top of Mercedes seems to suggest they realise the mistake. The fact it was an order that came from one of the senior management means that I am surprised that this website hasn’t crashed from all the comments of people shouting conspiracy – I don’t believe in the conspiracy but that was some big evidence to back it up. How you say that ‘it shows who Mercedes really want to win the championship’ is beyond my understanding!

It was Rosberg that was screwed by the team today, not Hamilton. The long stop was Rosberg’s; not to mention that Hamilton got first stop under the safety car while Rosberg had to do the extra lap; had they pitted him first, as you’d expect, he wouldn’t have dropped back in the first place. The “conspiracy theory” never fails to make me laugh.

Sebee, my fellow Vettel fan, what do you think of this season? Do you think Seb will find his way anytime soon? Will we have a win this season? Because it doesn’t look so. If it’s not slow driving, it’s the car, or bad strategy :/

Honesty, I think he’s getting to terms with this car Miha. Today was a lottery like Bernie likes and Daniel made the weird strategy work at a track where as James noted we saw 23 passes last year.

But absolutely full marks to Daniel. Look at the year. – no one gets a sniff of a win against these AMGs and he’s managed to book two. When will the Ferrari rumors start?

Another 1/2 season left. I think it will be hard but come on, 4 WDCs, all Vettel fans should be OK with a pause. Otherl fans need some watering and sunshine too after living under the rule of the finger!

What a snooze fest! Why even bother watch this tripe. Why is Hungaroring even on the calendar? I’m not sure I will watch a race after the summer break. This race totally ruined the Safety Car odds James quoted Friday too.

Who is this Ricciardo dude anyway? Is he Eye-talian? That was the flag on his podium hat.

To pass the time during the race, I came up with a script for a commercial. Tell me what you think.

Lewis walks by a W05 in a wide shot and says: “To win the 2014 world championship in one of these (points with his head backwards with eyebrows raised) what I really needed was one of these.” as he puts his elbow on the roof of an SLS F1 Safety Car, the camera shot zooms out.

Talks about making road car directly relevant in an F1 ad. Perfection. We shoot it during the summer break.

ricciardo was helped by his strategy and vettel unlucky to come out in traffic. although i was impressed by ricciardo and hamilton, alonso was the standout man for me. he killed that race. it looked like he had a whiff of victory and went for it full steam!

This was an excellent drive. And what a killer finish too even if he fell to P3. I would like to know how and why the race leader wasn’t called in immediately when SC came out. I can only assume that Nico’s track position wasn’t good, because even if he had to wait for mechanics that would have been worth it. It was all decided then and there for him mostly.

Look, I’m not saying he’s harder on it and pays the price every time all the time. I mean he perhaps swings the percentages just a bit in the bad direction with his style.

As for Vettel, never ever make fun of dads who take their daughter to ballet. The skills learned pay off everywhere! What grace! Many others tried, but only he had the skills to pull off that spin-de-grâce move entering the front straight. Man has it all, 4 WDC and grace. Wow.

If this race was held in 1988 there would have likely been two fatalities today. What a way to go into the break for F1.

I do wonder at times if this was the same @Sebee who always have annoying but interesting contributions (especially against Lewis) on this blog. Has someone copyrighted his username here. I really miss Sebee of 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. We (Hamilton fans) lived through this rough situation for 5 years and it only made us stronger. This season can make you (Vettel fans) stronger too if you are true fans.

C63, are you a father? It’s a big year for Sebastian. He probably should have taken paternity leave. I think Germany has 12 months paternity leave. Yet, here he is. Giving back to us while really he’d rather be reading Gute Nacht Mond.

Are you saying he needed the SC’s to make up positions? I can buy that, but I don’t see how that should count against him. Or at least not to the degree you’re talking about. Vettel’s drive from PL to 3rd in ABU’12 relied on fortunate SC timing. Vettel then also had the added benefit of being able to re-gear his car (to aid passing) in parc ferme, and also having the race leader drop out, plus other drivers go a bit looney on the day with some questionable overtaking attempts. Plus also the layout of the circuit played to his drive to 3rd that day.

Hamilton’s drive from PL to 3rd today is w/o doubt better than Vettel’s in 2012 … the SC helped no doubt, but the pole man and early race leader stayed in (beaten by HAM from the PL), and he did it on the Hungaroring, where passing is at a premium.

Rosberg was caught out by the SC, but still … from pole to 4th in the Merc, beaten by the other Merc that started in pit lane? It’s not pretty reading, that.

Rosberg was caught out by the SC as he had just passed the pit lane entrance when the accident occurred . But, crucially, so had Alonso and he still made it to second place – they analysed it all on sky. Rosberg started on pole and finished behind his team mate who started from the pit lane – btw did you see the post race interviews with Rosberg? Talk about grumpy pumpy face. As they say, what goes around comes around, don’t give it out of you can’t take it back , eh

There was tons of silliness in there. I’d expect no less than a complete audit by the Treasurer of JAonF1 Fan Club – Canadian Chapter. Glad that’s the part that rubbed you the wrong way. No one has pointed out that next race is a track few like.

Sebee – Rosberg was caught out by the safety car, the crash happened as soon as he got through the front straight, and everyone behind ducked straight into the pits while he had to take an entire lap through a full course yellow and get collected by the safety car.

Take it easy. I lived in New Jersey for two summers. That’s how they say it. Not to mention Rocky, which is the defacto pronunciation guide for the world.

Let me remind you that there is an “i” in that name that Daniel is conveniently omitting and asking all to not pronounce. And that I stands for Italian!

I couldn’t help my thoughts…as Ricciardo was passing Alonso, I was thinking – wow, Ferrari is the perfect future place for this guy. I wonder if he would change the country flag he races under and become more Italian when he goes to Ferrari? Would he be the first to race under different flags? goferet, we need stats, stat!

James, were you the one interviewing Toto right after the race? I am 100% on Lewis’s side when it comes to not letting Rosberg go. I think he did not disobey team orders. It is very different….Rosberg was never closer than 1,3 sec and Lewis would need to slow down to let him go which would mean he would have lost 2 sec. He was willing to let him go, but it would mean Rosberg getting closer. I think it was Rosberg who simply did not get close enough and therefore did not deserve that place. We know how it finished and so it was good for Lewis to stick to his position.He fought for it…..well done.

P.S.Not a Lewis fan, I am supporting Ferrari….but I am simply trying to think about the race from outside.

I’m also glad after the race Hamilton came out and said “I did it so I wouldn’t lose points to Nico, I was looking after myself”, none of this Massa/Bottas nonsense of “I was just doing my own race and I need to talk to the team to sort it out etc etc” or the laughable Vettel “tough luck” post-hoc justifications.

Rosberg was definitely closer that a second in several occasions I remember him being 0.6 seconds behind at one point. We’ve seen drivers on different strategies let the other through but today a whiny boy got his way and sulked on the podium. His fans claim Rosberg is more lucky but Hamilton in this race and last has bungled and crashed into others and barriers and escaped every time. If that’s not luck…..

On a side note James I feel the safety standards were terrible this weekend. Yesterday when Kevin crashed there was a Marshall not standing behind the protective gate and if anything broke off it could have hit him. And then today when Ericsson crashed there was a Marshall literally standing infront of him with his head poking out…. Am I the only one noticing these lapses? We haven’t had driver deaths in a long time but track marshals should be protected more I think…

It’s irrelevant how close Rosberg was – these two are fighting for the WDC and whatever way you want to cut it, Hamilton started from the pit lane and beat his team mate who started on pole. Happy , happy days

The timing screens showed NR was behind LH 0.8seconds for several laps before dropping to 1 second and then pitting, so from a team perspective a reasonable request.

Personally I’m totally against team orders, always have been and always will be regardless of the strategy or circumstances involved.

What amazes me though is the utter hypocrisy of so called F1 fans reactions depending on the drivers benefitting of the team order or not. There is total inconsistency. Despite LH ignoring orders this time, he fails to remember he also benefitted from them in the past gifting him a podium at the expense of his team mate, so he is somewhat of a hypocrite himself.

Can’t decide what was more hilarious – Rosberg crying for a pass or Hamilton being instructed on how to drive. To think that one of those two will be a world champion… Actually, have to settle for Mr. Brundle – to be so excited over a driver just because he’s British is…well – pathetic. No, Mr. Brundle, Hamilton finishing third is a lousy display considering safety car period and best package on the grid. Thumbs up for Alonso – now THAT is a drive of a world champion and I don’t even like the guy.

Brundle is a former F1 driver who seems to know a bit about racing and good racing driver. How much do you really know about racing? If you refuse to give credit to Hamilton for what he achieved today, then you don’t know much about racing.

Hamilton is an excellent driver, just not today. Helped by the safety car and with superior package than the rest of the field – he was average. People used to complain Schumacher was all about the package he was driving, yet fail to realize Ham did the same today. I respect Mr. Brundle for his knowledge and insight but fanboyism will always be pathetic. Same goes for you – invoking authority without argument proclaiming “If you refuse to give credit to Hamilton for what he achieved today, then you don’t know much about racing.” Facepalm Jean-Luc.

Kimi and Alonso both had good races . Kimi’s drive seems to have gone almost unnoticed. Alonso P2 and Kimi making up 9/10 places to finish in a season best P6 . I feel Kimi could have been in there with a chance at a podium without the qualy nightmare.

Sometimes I think it’s worse to do the [mod] thing … I can’t remember what I wrote, but it was nothing inflammatory. I said “give credit where it’s due”, pretty much. But I’m sure others substitute much worse words in for that [mod] when they see it.

As for the team orders, Rosberg said: “Of course I’m going to sit down with the team, Lewis will be there also, and we are going to go through everything and see how much we can learn from today, as always.”

“Lewis will be there also”? Isn’t Lewis part of the team? Seems like Nico thinks it’s his team, with Lewis as the hired help.

errrr, hang on a sec; Alonso started from P5, way ahead of Lewis who started from the PL so if anything, it was a stellar drive from Lewis to end up 3rd behind Alonso considering the difficulty in overtaking and the Ferrari wasn’t that slow!

From the pit lane? The other Merc started on pole and finished fourth but Hamilton was lousy, I thought Ricciardo and Hamilton along with Alonso were great today. You say you don’t like Alonso but give credit for his fith to second performance but last to third is lousy, are you sure it’s not Hamilton you don’t like, regardless of favourites credit where credit is due, and I think the top three today all deserve praise.

The other Merc doesn’t even deserve a comment. Crying for team orders – twice! Let’s be honest – Ham was helped by circumstances today, no way he would have reached podium on his own. Please don’t focus on numbers alone – following that logic Shumacher is the best driver ever because he’s a seven-time world champ…

@Marcus, you’re correct. In a normal dry race at the Hungaroring, there should be no way to go from the PL to 3rd. Considering he was hindered by circumstances yesterday in qualifying, I’m sure you’re fine with him being helped by them today. Considering the form he had showed through all three practice sessions, a “normal” weekend for him would’ve been a lights-to-flag win.

I hear that’s what he’s said … that he didn’t request it. We’ll see what comes out in the days ahead. But if he didn’t initially request it, he surely wanted it bad afterwards!

As Coulthard said in the BBC broadcast, that order shouldn’t have come from Bono, Lewis’ race engineer. It should’ve come from Lowe. Really, the order never should have come in the first place. If Lewis had let Nico by, it would’ve been a big hit to the credibility of both of them, plus Mercedes.

@Marcus, I am not focusing on numbers, but to say “lousy”is poor judgement I feel, even with the obvious help of the safety car I still think Hamiltons performance was far from lousy, if he gained 2 more places he would have won from starting in the pit and you would have still called it lousy, what would he have needed to do today to be graded above lousy by you,other drivers including Ricciardo gained from the safety car but it did make for an interesting race and does not make Ricciardo’s drive lousy, I really enjoyed his win as many would I’m sure. As for the best of all time, well that’s a debate that will never be agreed on by everyone, we all have our favourites from past and present,and although during his dominant years I did not favour Schumacher, I did respect his huge talent and will to win, sometimes he overstepped the point of fair I thought, with Hill incident particularly annoying me. I didn’t like the outcome when Senna pulled the same stunt on Prost years earlier either. Maybe it’s my age or my old fashioned gent ways but I like fairness.

Agreed, fairness is something all teams should aspire to. Am on the verge of stop watching the whole farce altogether. On Ham – comparing to his abilities, today was a lousy display. Almost crashing at the beginning, instructions on how to drive, inability to pass that dog of a car Ferrari… Yet, he is DOTD. Ah, the standards today….

@Marcus
Not to me it wasn’t, that’s why I sought clarification. Although to be fair, when you used the term ‘rest’ in this context, it implies you meant all the other drivers in the field – which included Rosberg. So I thank you for confirming that you didn’t actually mean what you said, and appreciate you taking the time and trouble to do so

I’d call myself one of the moaners, so I won’t say anything about this race. I was actually grocery shopping during the race, and have come home to read about what happened. Great peaches and green beans this time of year!

He is super impressive! When I saw him winning the Canadian GP this year, I said he is the Champion to be.
Vettel is fast, but let’s face it, he can’t overtake. Dan is different, he is fast enough and he manages to overtake Lewis and Alonso. These two guys are the best in a dogfight and Ric is right up there.

DOTD! Daniel Ricciardo
Both Alonso and Hamilton deserves a mention; Hamilton made a great comeback from the dead last; Alonso making the soft last that long to salvage second place – only he can do this.

Other points, Alonso’s Ferrari with DRS off is faster than Mercedes with DRS on. Ferrari is fast enough on race pace while Mercedes is untouchable in quali. Red Bull is only fast around the corners.

Vettel? Webber made him look like a great. Thankfully, Ricciardo came along to show what he really is worth, I mean an average driver who happenned to drive the more than dominant RedBull car over the last four seasons.

Red Bull only fast in corners? Good for them 75% of F1 tracks are corners then! BTW, Mercedes without DRS is just 2-3 km/h slower than the Ferrari with DRS, i don’t know where you get your numbers from.

My dear… You took my words too literally.
I tried to say that Alonso was ahead of Hamilton despite DRS help and fresher tyres (although it is harder compound).
My point is that Ferrari isn’t slow on race trim at all.

Yeah, I think you’re right … Alonso had another great race, but Ricciardo with that move around the outside of Hamilton. Wow! He had to do it then too, or else he might not have caught Alonso. Great move, great racing, all three more than fair with each other.

But recovered like a truly champion. Slippery condition to be blame not to his skill. He is one of the best,right now having tough time like the samurai Alo got beaten on 2007 by a rookie. Note Dan is not rookie.

Come on, you’ve got to admit that Dan lucked out today. He was well behind the top 4, and suddenly found himself in front with all the top guys stuck behind slower. After that, it was always advantage to him because even if he had cars in front, they were always going to pit or as in the last few laps, they were 3-4 seconds off the pace.That said, credit to him for making the most of his chances.

However, this week, Vettel generally had the legs on him and I feel that the second half of the season is going to be quite a bit different as Seb finally gets to terms with the car.

Vettel is always better in the second half season. But I don’t think this will save him from a poor 2014 season overall.
Plus, we have seen Ricc stepping up the game a few times already. So the teammate rivalry is a lot different.

I’m not entirely sure, but I suspect that Lewis was set up for a wet race, with softer suspension, more wing, and all the other settings that go with that. He did a lot of hits passing on the corners, because he didn’t have the top speed on the straights (more wing = more drag).

By the end, his tyres were toast, so his cornering advantage was gone. The top speed advantage of the cars around him meant that third was the best he could do, and Alonso was out of reach. He did well to hold off Nico for the podium. I hope that Mercedes give him a fair shot at the second half of the season and that the one who deserves the WDC gets it, not just the one with less breakdowns.

Comparing the way that Lewis dispatched Jev with Nico’s half hearted attempts, at the moment I’d have to say that Lewis deserves the lead on merit. Lewis has the racer’s edge that Nico lacked today.

Ricciardo is at the top of the cream!
I am impressed beyond believe!
Remember last year when team bosses were making excuses about tall driver equals slow driver? Here we have a man that defy team bosses’ physics. LOL.

Thrilling race one of the best in recent years. Just shows that F1 is still a great spectator sport if it is left alone and not interfered with too much:
- would standing restarts have improved this race??
- would Hamilton following team orders have improved this race??

congratulations to ricciardo on his second win of the season, great drive but alonso was my man because ricciardo was on fresher tyres. hamilton demonstrated just how stupid those team orders are. if hamilton had slowed down for rosberg as the team wanted then rosberg would have finished ahead of hamilton. how stupid would that have looked? from pits to podium and pissing all over those stupid team orders make hamilton my man of the race by a long shot. how many laps did he stay on those tyres? he even asked if the tyres could make it to the end over 20 laps to go. what a race! verne was another top man mid race and q1. i wonder what he could do in that red bull.

Rosberg would have had the chance to fight for a Merc victory,had Hamilton let him through.
Neverthless he wouldnt have deserved it today because he spent too much time behind a Torro rosso, when Hamilton and Vettel cleared Verne with considerable ease later.

Rosberg’s car positioning during a dog fight and overtaking skills are questionable.All his overtaking moves I’ve see so far is DRS assisted in Straight line. So even if Hamilton had let him past, I doubt he would have overtaken Ricciardo or Alonso.

But there should not be double standards when it comes to team orders. People gave Vettel stick for Malaysia and for supposedly saying’ Tough luck’ this year, but yet applaud Hamilton when he disobeyed a direct team order.

Your first sentence is epic. Can you imagine one of only tw, direct contenders for the title letting the other through? THAT would have been a real spectacle!
Mercedes deserves a mention apart: Was the order in the spirit (they claim for themselves) of letting both drivers compete??? It doesn’t make any difference if Nico was close enough to overtake, that is selling smoke! The fact is that by not letting him through Lewis finished in front of his rival which otherwise he would have not.

Alonso is driver of the day, actually the driver of ANY day. He was the last in the leading pack that was caught out by the crucial Safety Car but finished in front of all of those drivers.

If Rosberg wanted to win he should have passed a much slower Toro Rosso that he spent a very long time behind. That’s where he lost the race, his own fault. Why would his only championship rival move over for him?! Hamilton did exactly the right thing and didn’t waste time bothering to assist Rosberg who couldn’t overtake Vergne

“Rosberg would have had the chance to fight for a Merc victory,had Hamilton let him through.”
At that point, Hamilton had the chance to win. This is how I saw things and it’s certainly how the Sky commentary team saw it. So team orders in this case is basically telling one driver that he’s in with a chance of winning, but we feel the other guy has a slightly better chance. Also, this talk of maximising both strategies is garbage. To let Rosberg past in this way would have have maximised Rosberg’s strategy and harmed Hamilton’s.

And why couldn’t have Rosberg got closer to Hamilton to make the pass? Asking racers to slow down on the pit straight was embarrassing to them all. In all of this, the pitwall team is the party that should feel most embarrassed in all of this. Rosberg should also feel a little silly for asking why Hamilton isn’t moving over. Of course, he’s fine to expect team orders to be respected, but get a bit closer and make it clear you’re faster. Hanging a second back and whining doesn’t look good for either.

“But there should not be double standards when it comes to team orders. People gave Vettel stick for Malaysia and for supposedly saying’ Tough luck’ this year, but yet applaud Hamilton when he disobeyed a direct team order.”

Different situation. Vettel had no chance of winning the race and was in the decidedly weaker position. That was clear to everybody, and ultimately to Vettel, which is why he ultimately moved aside (if we’re to believe he did move aside).

All that being said, it’s fascinating to watch the Hamilton-Rosberg battle. A very simplistic view is that Hamilton is clearly the, in raw terms, quicker driver. Rosberg, though, seems to be the more cerebral of the two. He seems to understand that Hamilton is quicker and is able to use data and the team structure more effectively to his advantage. In this way, he seems to see the bigger picture in all of this slightly better. He knows that his approach can win him the title. Hamilton doesn’t yet seem to see that pace alone won’t do it. In this context, it seems Rosberg is maximising his chances, while Hamilton isn’t. While I can’t stand the cliched comparison, for the first time I’m actually starting to see the Senna-Prost comparison as a valid one.

It’ll be fascinating to see whether Hamilton is able to put everything together over the second half of the season. If he is, I think there’s only one winner. If he isn’t, then I think it’ll go a long way to cementing his legacy as a fast but ultimately flawed driver.

Hmm, I’m not sure they actually did. Just re-watching the race, and HAM was running 13th on lap 8 when the SC came out. After everyone had pitted, he was still 13th in the SC train.

On lap 23 (I think Perez heap of a car slid over the start-finish line) HAM was running 7th with ROS in 5th. Rosberg couldn’t get past Vergne, even though his options were 1 lap fresher than Hamilton’s. After RIC and MAS pitted, it was ALO-VER-ROS-VET-HAM.

On lap 25, interestingly, we get the ROS radio message: “Tell Charlie he needs to check to see if people were lifting in the yellow zone.” Who was he trying to tattle on there? As Austin Powers would say “that’s just not cricket, man.”

Once it goes green on lap 27, Alonso pulls away from Vergne, and Rosberg fails to clear Vergne for a total of 6 laps (27-32). On lap 32 Rosberg falls out of DRS range behind Vergne, so he decides to pit. On that very same sequence, as VER-VET-HAM go onto the pit straight, Vettel recalls how he loved to delight the crowds with donuts in the past, and instantly feels inspired to give the masses what they really want, right then and there.

Hamilton clearing Vettel there was very important, as Lewis was being very cautious behind Vettel in the laps before that. Then came the move that allowed Lewis to jump Nico, his overtake of Vergne around the outside of Turn 4 on lap 34. Simply brilliant stuff. Lewis pulls a gap on Nico for 6 straight laps, laps 33-38, even though Nico’s on the fresh options.

All that hard slogging to gain position, and then Mercedes ask him to just give it away? This is not right.

Anyways, as shown the SC’s didn’t help him to the extent that some are claiming. It certainly bunched the field back up … HAM was 33 secs back of ROS at the end of lap 7. But that’s what a SC car does, it brings the field back closer together. Certainly there was no other remedy available for Charlie with both Ericsson’s and Perez’s crashes.

There should’ve been a SC in the last race in Germany, so Rosberg can consider that a gift from Charlie. Three stewards ran across the track from the grandstand side on the pit straight towards Sutil’s car, and HAM passed by less than 4 sec’s later. What if one of them had stumbled as they were running across, and they were down right in the middle of the racing line? It doesn’t bear thinking about, but it does cause me to question why there wasn’t a SC there.

The safety cars helped most of the drivers bar the front runners at the time. Germany definitely should have been a safety car. Rosberg was just slower. It worked out well and was fair, bring back 1 spare car for the team I say!

Brilliant drive Ricciardo, Fantastic Alonso as always and great recovery from Hamilton.
I have seen ludicrous tweets questioning Hamilton for not slowing down to let Roseberg through. Slowing down and losing two seconds at least in the process to give way to your main championship rival is too much to ask of a driver.

Sitting in the stand, with joint Hungarian and English commentary even I could see F1 feed and knew that the gap between team-mates was close, but then so was the gap between Hamilton and Alonso.

So bearing in mind the fact that Rosberg said: “he would play it safe, avoid any unnecessary things happening and get as many points as possible.” I was on my feet screaming for Lewis not to let him pass and concentrate on his own fight with Alonso.

But then, I was merely in the crowd giving my all hoping that both would be racing – yes racing- to win as many points as possible.

Is this what Rosberg refers to by “playing it safe” and if it us, what are we to expect for the rest of the season!

@GS and @HP, he was less than 1 sec (so DRS) as they crossed the line for laps 48, 49, and 50. That was it! Even on those laps, he was always over 8-tenths back. After that, he dropped back out of DRS range, and pitted again on lap 56. Sorry, but that’s a #Fail if there ever was one.

To pass someone, you need to be close enough on the straight to draft into the lead. At that point, Lewis might have considered not defending. The fact is that Nico never got within half a second of Lewis. At 180mph, that’s a lot of car lengths.

Mercedes shot themselves in the foot today, showing that they are principally interested in their German driver winning the WDC. The impact on the constructors championship is pretty much irrelevant, as nobody its going to catch Mercedes for that. To claim that they were doing it to maximize constructors championship points is just bovine scatology.

Kudos to Lewis for setting them straight. Great drive by Daniel, and also well done to Fernando, but dotd for me goes to Lewis for keeping the championship alive despite Mercedes best efforts to prevent it.

After last week’s safety car fiasco, many (amazingly) defended it by claiming that double yellows are sufficient for a stalled car just off the racing line and that its ok for marshalls to scamper across a hot racing track. I’m really looking forward to their reasoning why it was ok for the safety car to come out this time.

Amazing drive by Hamilton. People that like to knock him should just learn to enjoy one the greatest racers of all time. Few have ever lived that can provide these levels of excitement on a regular basis.

Is carbon fibre more or less dangerous than a car and human beings on the track, human debris surely more worrying than carbon fibre. Safety car was correct today and you know as do we all that it was a mistake not to bring it out last week for the Sutil car, our support for one driver or another should make no difference to safety calls.

Have to say, Ricciardo has made a believer of me. He was lucky with the safety car, but once he got a sight of victory he locked on it like an exocet, in the same way Alonso and Hamilton do, and it was very fitting that he overtook the two of them to take his victory. I didn’t think much of him before this season, but I’ll admit that I was wrong, he’s top tier.

A long list of “what ifs” for people – Jenson for putting on the wrong tyres, Rosberg, Bottas and Vettel for missing out under the safety car (although Alonso did too and still finished ahead of them). I think in spite of everything Hamilton will be disappointed, he could have won this race and it will hurt that he lost out so late. Having said that, one a terrible weekend for him he’s negated his bad luck and then some, it’s still game on for the title in spite of me mentally writing it off several times now.

Yep, the 4 first cars before the safety car came in (Valtteri, Seb, Fernando and Nico) couldn’t go into the pits because thy were already in the last corner, their gap with Jenson was around 5 seconds and that allowed the rest to go in. Without that Fernando could have claimed victory.

I seemed to have touched a nerve, calm down. My post is factual. Never do I say Vergne and Alonso had an agreement. Stop making up rubbish that I didn’t say to suit your story.

It is a fact Alonso could build a healthy gap because Rosberg couldn’t overtake Vergne. This helped Alonso manage his tyres. Hamilton would have got passed Vergne much quicker (as witnessed when he got the chance) and not allow Alonso to manage his tyres, Rosberg could not manage it.

This is called an observation of what happened. I am not saying Alonso didn’t drive well, he drove a great race. Hope you have calmed down now.

This is why Alonso is a double world champion. Excellent drive! Ricciardo is getting impressive by the day. Congrats on your 2nd win! Alonso gave Hamilton a few lessons on how to defend today. Ricciardo showed him how to leave room on the outside, which Lewis didn’t do for NIco at the same place towards the end.

Who was the luckiest driver of the day? Lewis Hamilton for sure. In open air, and after starting from the pits, he manages to spin. Then safety cars came to his rescue. How much more luck does he need? Just a day back, most of the commentators here were “categorically” convinced Merc was out to get him.

Start by beating Nico consistently. Alonso is way up the ladder, Lewis. One step at a time.

[mod]look at the facts.
He got lucky and his team helped him which must make all those conspiracy theorists feel really silly. And to suggest Fernando got an advantage? ham couldn’t pass him in the next 10 laps on fresher tyres.

“Hamilton has been cheated out of at least 2 WDCs by the FIA and Alonso.” Feel free to add arguments, or shut up.

“Alonso left the track and gained an advantage, Hamilton would have got past if he had not, but was allowed to keep the advantage.”
If you’re talking about the chicane accident, no, Hamilton would not have gone past, he wasn’t close to Alonso at that point, let alone next to him

“Lewis span as cars starting from the pitalne do not do the formation lap, so have cold brakes.”
This is Lewis’ 8th season in F1, meaning he is an experienced driver, he should have known his brakes were cold and that he shouldn’t have pushed that hard, that early.

“Every time there has been a fight, Lewis has won”
. Lewis has done about 170 Grand Prix starts and won 25 or so, meaning he lost 145 races.

“Lewis beat Alonso into the first corner of his firat race, then beat him in the WDC. Shame some people just cannot get over it.”

Lewis might have beaten Alonso in the first corner of his first race, but races aren’t won in the first corner. Alonso came 2nd that race, Hamilton third. (“Every time there has been a fight, Lewis has won”)
Also, it is a well known fact that Lewis was favoured hard in 2007.

I haven’t seen Hamilton win races like Alonso did (Malaysia 2012 or the European Grand Prix in 2007 where he made that dramatic overtake on Massa for the win)

Lewis is fast, speed however, is not the only thing that matters in F1. As a driver, he has grown this year, however, he still isn’t there yet.

The races you refer to, 2012 Malaysia and 2007 nurburgring. It was common knowledge the Mclaren in 2007 was the best in wet conditions, Massa was a sitting duck on tyres he destroyed exiting his pit box, added to the fact the Ferrari didn’t heat it’s tyres as quick as the Mclaren. Also in 2012, although the Ferrari wasn’t the best car, it used it’s tyres very heavily and was very effective in the wet, illustrated by him getting pole at silverstone and hockenheim that year in wet conditions. So not really that amazing

@Nickh……what did Massa do to destroy his tyres when leaving the pits? Please enlighten me.
What your purposely omitting is how slow the Ferrari was at Malaysia in 2012. Only in intermittent weather did alonso become competitive in pace. He then produced the goods and hauled his way to win.
You should be more appreciative of great drives or at least try to gain the knowledge to understand when your dismissing a guy who produces these dogged results year in year out that u sound a bit……..Elie like. Where is he anyway?

It is well documented that in that race Massa had a lot of vibrations on his last set of tyres in that race, he lost over 1 second in a single sector whereas earlier in the race he had decent pace in the wet and had comfortably kept Alonso behind. Peter Windsor noted that the 2007 Bridgestone wet tyres were not bonded to the rim like the dry tyres, so when Massa left his box and spun his tyres, they twisted on the rim and upset the balance of the car. Hope this helps

Well, Rosberg started 1st….Hamilton in the pit lane. I do not know if you understand F1 well enough to catch the fact that without the formation lap you get cold tyres and cold breaks and hence his spin. Hamilton was not bad today…. Think about Rosberg. He could not even overtake Vergne! Hamilton was taking every opportunity whereas what Rosberg did today was:
1. Asking the team to insist Hamilton to let him pass by even though he could never get close enough…never closer than 1,3 sec
2. Could not overtake Vergne with a Merc engine!
3. Was pushing in the last sting when he had fresh tyres and clean air

So what did Rosberg do today that was special? Nothing….I would say he was very pale….his driving

Shouldn’t he be aware of the cold tires, then? How can Hamilton be a great champ if he cannot even figure out that his tires are cold? Not to mention getting defending tips from his engineer. I haven’t complained about team orders anywhere. I’m not concerned about Rosberg. Did I say anything about him? Who are you replying to?

You are mostly not wrong, but Rosberg did pass some cars to get from 11th, where he emerged after last tyre stop, to 5th behind Lewis.

Those on here who have in the past decried Lewis’ fast climbs through the field by saying “he has the fastest car”, and “is only racing one car”, will no doubt be posting that Rosberg had the fastest car too, and on meeting the only car he is racing, called the team to be let past.

Also, WTH? Cars starting from pits don’t get a warm-up lap? Surely that would be a safety issue?

Let them do the warm-up lap, then feed back into the pit lane while the rest go to the grid.

1. the team asked lewis to move over, not nico. nico only asked if lewis is moving over or not. rosberg was 0.6 behind hamilton for a few laps, but lewis didnt let him by so he backed off
2. did you not watch rosberg’s rear left tyre/brake smoking during the safety period, and how slow (he lost 203 positions in two corners) he was because of that when the safety car went in?
3. so was lewis, he couldnt overtake vettel until vettell had a spin

A lot of people on here don’t understand that without a formation lap a drivers tyres and brakes will be stone cold. Obviously this problem is only exacerbated in wet conditions. Couple this with a very low grip level of the hungaroring and it is not really surprising he slid off at turn 2. Hopefully this will help your understanding of F1

I agree with you Hamilton was very lucky today… If he didn’t have the fastest car on the grid he’d have been nowhere with his spin into the barriers. But you’ll get a lot of grief from some small minded quarters for pointing out the utterly obvious.

Gazza I don’t believe Hamilton deserved praise for his driving this weekend or last. Just because I bring up a valid point you think that makes me biased. This clown has crashed into barriers and cars at both raves. He’d be nowhere if he didn’t have a car that literally has one of the largest advantages in F1 history. I can’t be a sheep…

@c63 I don’t even think your comment warrants a response but out of courtesy why did Rosberg not win? Because the safety car came out after he passed pit entry. He was streaking away until then. Every commentator said this too so why this is even a question is beyond me. But like I said… Small minds.

Don’t you remember what happened when Hamilton joined Alonso at McLaren? As good a driver as Alonso is, it would be very difficult to say who the better driver is. The one step at a time comment is a bit silly in my opinion.
Once again Hamilton overcame the odds to show us what a great and exciting driver he is, and incidentally, in my viewing of post race reactions from the drivers, shows more maturity than both Rosberg, and Vettel, Hamilton wears his heart on his sleeve, what you see is what you get.

Lewis beat Alonso in the same car as a rookie after stunts from Fernando such as deliberately messing up Lewis’ qualifying in Hungary and swerving towards his pit crew on the main straight at Indianapolis because he couldn’t overtake Lewis.

What did Lewis achieve between 2010-2012 with Mclaren? He could not even manage the threat from button and throwed the trantrums. Have you forget the twitter gate in 2012 Belgian GP aftermath? Why you want to glorify lewis here and take a dig at Alonso with every comment

Lewis had the better cars with Mclaren between 2010-2012 with Mclaren than what Ferrari produced or able to provide Fernando in that timeframe, Yet Alonso finished as a runner up twice between those three season’s whereas Lewis crahsed into Massa at Italian 2010 GP and crashed into webber at 2010 singapore GP and lost the WDC to vettel & co

Lewis did not handle the challenge well either against button when they were team-mates at Mclaren so stop the Fallacy lewis beat Alonso back in 2007. Put that as Mcllaren & ron dennis have beat Alonso back in 2007

Lewis had better cars through-out his career and yet fluffled the chances to win WDC back in 2007 & 2010 despite the total Entourage provided by the team. On other hand with sub-standard cars Alonso have always managed to beat lewis in the total WDC standings

Nickh…..In the same car, as a rookie with all the help from the team regarding optimal qualifying fuel loads, strategy, public, private and internal support from Ron, protest from own team and if Massa didn’t pull over for Kimi, Alonso would have been champ.

What a race! Dan’s the Man, a superb drive. Fernando and Lewis were brilliant and Nico was pretty darn good too. Williams need to learn that in order to win you need to be more aggressive. Anyway, who cares about them. How good is our Dan, you beauty!!!!, I wish it wasn’t 12:30am in Australia cause I’d love to crack a beer right now, oh what the heck, Here’s to Danny, he’s true blue!

Brilliant race. Probably the best of the year but there’s been a fair few.

I couldn’t decide who I wanted to win more, Alonso or Ricciardo. Great race for Hamilton too but the Mercedes is so easily the best car that for Alonso to hold on to the lead for so long in THAT Ferrari was epic. And Ricciardo showed once again how supreme he is with his passing.

A race full of good and bad luck as expected with rain and safety cars. Rosberg (along with the top 4 early on, Bottas, Vettel, etc) got some of the bad luck this time with the first safety car confirmed at a terrible point on track for them.

And Rosberg was never close enough to be let passed Hamilton but given they’re fighting for the Championship, it’s hard to understand why the team would expect Lewis to let Nico passed regardless. Opening a political can of worms there…

He didn’t come close on purpose. No point in running in someone else’s exhaust and ruining your balance, overheating your tires and losing aerodynamic grip. Both Lewis and Nico were playing smart at that point. Nico was hoping Lewis would lose some time letting him past. Lewis didn’t want that, because he would’ve lost a good second, if not more, if he had let him through. Both cars were on different strategies, and the call was from the team, not the drivers.

Yeah I understand that and it was clear Nico dropped back a bit to look after the tyres as you say. And yeah it was a team decision. But Nico really would have needed to properly close up and harass Lewis to press home the point his strategy was being compromised and to put pressure on the situation of the team wanting the Hamilton to let him passed. But as it was, it just looked like Rosberg was happy with the pace he was doing. And Lewis wasn’t going to drop 2 seconds back to let him through.

But to me it all seemed a case of strategists looking at the numbers and saying we need Nico passed as he’ll lose time on his strategy, which is fair enough but doesn’t take into account the human factors of why would Lewis won’t to aid his Championship challenger’s chance of beating him!

@ Craig D. When you put it like that, it sounds much better, doesn’t it? There was no need to thrash Nico in the first place, which you have refrained from doing in your second post. The human factor you mentioned clearly explains what the first post was alluding – you were championing Lewis’ cause, which is fair enough.

@ aveli. Team radios – as we hear it on the telly – are relayed much later. It isn’t live. That’s point number 1. Point number 2 is Sky edits and choses what to let its viewers hear. The Merc to Nico message wasn’t relayed. Merc to Lewis message was relayed. Sky likes to spice up things. Please google FAIR to understand how media works.

What a race. In retrospect I believe Hamilton should have come in for a late tire change and would’ve done a better job than Rosberg in overtaking on new tires. Remember he had a new set of softs. In any case a great come back from the pit lane. Well done to Ricardo and Alonso for great podiums.

I think so too … his pace on worn options, versus Rosberg’s on new options, during laps 34-39, was telling. Obviously he started with 3 sets of brand spanking new options, waiting in the garage for him. He would’ve cleared both ALO and MAS pretty fast, then could go on building a gap for the final stint. Two stints of 16 laps on the options would’ve set him up nicely. Not sure what his fuel situation was like, and whether it was compromised b/c of his PL start, though surely the SC periods would’ve helped with that. Then there was his engineer asking him to use shorter gears, higher revs, to manage an issue. What would that be about, other than to burn off some excess fuel?

Sure Rosberg would have won with Hamilton being fourth if he would have conceded. But why would he do that? Mercedes Constructor’s Championship is not in immediate danger. And neither is Rosberg’s lead in the Driver’s Championship. I believe Hamilton did the right thing.

So? No harm done for the Constructors trohpy to switch positions, therefore Lewis was right to hold position. I’m pretty sure Rosberg would be an ass in that situation too, considering there is a Drivers Championship on stake between these two. Rosberg lost out today, as Hamilton has done many times this season, and you probably weren’t moaning then.

Malaysia 2013 is entirely different as it involved Vettel – I am guessing you are new to this forum as, by and large, no one likes Vettel and if the opportunity to have a dig is presented , it is rarely ignored

I have been searching the comments today, waiting for you to remark how embarrassing it was for Nico not to be able to overtake a car that he was 3 seconds a lap faster than. After all, you were firmly of the opinion that Hamilton should have hung his head in shame only a week ago, when he was a mere 1.5 seconds a lap faster than the car he was following.
I know you are a stickler for double standards as your post says so – when should we expect you to set the record straight?

Ricciardo Great race! Deserves every bit of the praise he gets, wonderfully done.
Alonso, good race too, but I honestly think he was helped a little bit by Lewis, who looked hesitant to make a move on Alonso.
Kimi, Finally a good race after a long time, p16 to p6 in F14T, pity that williams was so quick in the straights, He was definitely faster than Felipe though, but couldn’t quiet overtake.
Vettel, save of the day! Unbelievable as to how he kept that car from going into the barriers.

Overall, a great race helped by the weather and safety car and some good overtaking moves especially towards the end.

What a race!! We’ll done DR, showed a lot of class in that win. Looks like we’ll be seeing that smile around a bit more. Much better than Lewis’ stroppy, hard done by, I should have won but I couldn’t get passed Fernando, biitter look

I think Lewis’ look had more to do with team strategy…. when you see the gap to Rosberg; why on earth would they have asked him to move over? Had Hamilton gone soft/soft (witch were brand new) he would have won easily.
Ps: Fernando is amazing!

“I truly believe that a person’s interpretation of another is more a reflection of them! ”
Yes, I’m disappointed I only came third in my last grand prix, I deserve to come first more than any one else

So if I bow to your discerning judgement how would you have described Lewis if instead he was leaping around like he was on the top step and taking the limelight of a fantastic win by Ricciardo?”
At least I would know that he was pleased with his own effort and happy to have finished on the podium. Don’t forget, these guys make a lot of money out of something they enjoy doing. He did finish in front of Rosberg which was more than he would have expected starting from pitlane.

It has been a magnificient race.
The initial “immoderate” weather, the different strategies and, especially, the performances of cars and drivers made it such a remarkable one. Among the most thrilling ones in the last few years.

Congrats to Ricciardo, fearless fighter. And RBR for their brilliant strategy. Alonso is from another planet! How on earth did he manage to finish ahead of the 2 Mercedes when he is driving that lame Fiat 500? Kimi did a good job too finishing ahead of Vettel. Lewis also fantastic. Would Hamilton have won on softer tyres?

Difficult to say. I think Lewis would have had a better shot to win on softer tires. He could have gone another second a lap quicker on the softer tires than he was on the hards. Judging by the rate he was catching Alonso toward the end of the second stint, he probably could have taken a good half a tenth to a second a lap out of him in the early laps of the soft tires and would have had more grip to make a move. If he could have gotten this done in the first ten laps of the run, he would have had about five laps or so to build a gap before Ricciardo pitted, and he may have had enough to nurse the tires and get to the flag first. On the hard tires, though, he was doomed to go nowhere on Alonso in the first third of the final stint because he was on a slower tire.

Either way, the best move would have been to go on the softs to the end.

They should probably make ‘Alonso’ and adjective. That will be the best way to describe the man. Ferrari better get that engine woes addressed over the winter break. This man deserves another shot at the WDC.

I don’t think you can say RBR favoured Ricciardo today. Vettel was hurt by the SC, just as Rosberg was. Ricciardo was hard done by, by the Massa-Magnussen crash in Germany last week, so it’s evened out over the last two races at least. Vettel did his race and his strategy no favours today with that rookie-esque spin on the pit straight.

I mostly agree. Alonso is the best, clearly, but I’m not sure about that Mercedes tried to favor Nico over Lewis. They don’t give a damn on what driver wins as long as it’s a Mercedes. I guess they were trying a one-two win by making both strategies work. They needed Hamilton to cooperate for that but he rightly didn’t as the collateral effect would have been a loss of points in the title fight with Nico. Now the conflict is not between drivers but with the team!!!

What a fantastic race from all the top drivers.
Hamilton was kind of playing games with Nico in the middle of the race when Nico was asking to pass. I think Lewis picked up his pace right after Nico went for 3rd pit stop. (What will be your opinion about this, James?
No doubt Hamilton has all his right not give Nico place and kept Nico at bay as long as he could. But in the end, that move backfired him. He should have passed Fernando as soon as possible when he had much fresher tyre then and build a safe gap for his win.
In the end, I think Hamilton got his goal, to beat Nico, but lost the Hungarian GP.
Nevertheless, the drives from all of them, Dan, Fernando, Hamilton, and even Nico in the end are just fantastic.
WOW. What a race.

If you go back to the point when Lewis pitted, he was about one and a half seconds ahead of Ricciardo in the lead. Ricciardo was about 2 tenths a lap quicker at that point. He had a 5 second cushion on Nico for the pitstop. He could have done another three laps or so at the pace he was doing, or even a slightly slower pace. He could have come in with about 28 laps to go, gotten softs, and done the rest of the race on the softs. After all, Ricciardo was able to do 31 laps on his second stint on softs. And he would have had a four lap advantage on Alonso in tire life. He could have used this advantage without having to push the tires too hard, gotten by Alonso on a grippier tire, and built enough of a margin to win. Big strategic blunder by Mercedes there.

Today I thought for the first time that there is indeed a “F1 god”. Rosberg begun first, Hamilton last, in the ends Hamilton ahead of Rosberg. “So the last will be first, and the first last”. What about the laughing stock of Formula One, McLaren? Their car is indeed, quoting Nicki Lauda, “ssss” What a forecast, the weather god must be laughing, laughing and laughing. Fantastic race!

STILL I RISE !! WELL DONE LEWIS . START FROM PIT LANE HAS A SPIN & FIGHTS HIS WAY TO THE TOP THREE.
Rosberg still can’t pass Lewis in a proper dog fight even with new tyres.
Lewis knew letting Rosberg pass would hamper his own race. So alls fair in Love & War. Rosberg wanted an adrenaline fight & he got it as requested at Quali interviews. So he can’t moan on.
Pole Position to 4th on fresh tyres & no cigar.
Lewis Pit lane start plus spin & a 3rd place & he also lead the race for awhile. That is a first in F1 history.
Well done to Daniel & Alonso.
Fantastic Race . So all those negative comments regarding Lewis yesterday are hilarious.
Forza Lewis definitely Drver of Day STILL I RISE BABY . BEST OF BRITISH TO YOU LEWIS

Mmmm another delicious win for Ricciardo , this guy is seriously hungry and super impressive. James I remember last yr when he got the drive I told you he would be able to mix it with the top guys! Especially vettel, hope you believe me now great winner ! Great racing , and a win for f1 and the fans exciting!

Maybe, your guitar solos are too sublime and of a higher musical standard, perhaps? I hope you’re the real Malmsteen. If not, Britney prob sings well and you pretend even better. If you’re the real Malmsteen, bring out more albums like Rising Star and Fire and Ice.

the two very best drivers today were 1st and 2nd. ricciardo was supreme and he drove a faultless race. his passes were up there with the very best of the best. alonso also drove like a champ. ricci is a thrilling driver and he has put it all on the line and he is now showing just how good he really is.

as for hamilton, well yes he drove well to finish where he did but what a miserable sod he is. his podium demeanour says it all. no class, no style.

The guy just drove his heart out & you are picking pot shots.
Yes you don’t like him. Understood.
The guy came from pit lane to 3rd not alot of drivers do that so give him some leeway.
It must be something else that prompts the constant negatives.
Lewis drove a stunning superb drive:-)

@ pkara…have you ever heard of the saying, ‘actions speak louder than words’? i said that hamilton drove well….he came third! he also was the beneficiary of SC’s as well. a lot of people were and then a lot of people weren’t. so what. that is what F1 is all about. i am heartily sick of people who actually believe that hamilton is a ‘god’. he is not. he even thinks he is?

today was a great race and the chaps who filled the first three places were the best, on the day. at the very least hamilton could do was be satisfied that he was even on the podium.

I agree that certain drivers seem to be criticised by the same posters no matter what, strangely three of the current best Hamilton,Vetttel and Alonso seem to be singled out more than the others, despite all three being highly talented, maybe race craft and skill are becoming less important to some than personality in today’s F1, it’s not the X factor or big brother type popularity contest,not for me anyway.

The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause. ~Baltasar Gracián
The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves. ~William Penn

Bizarre comment – Hamilton just can’t win with you! If he had been leaping about on the podium you would doubtless have accused him of stealing Ricky’s thunder .
Incidentally, if you thought Ricky’s drive was thrilling (which it was) what did you make of Hamiltons overtake on Verne? Overtake of the race without doubt and contender for the overtake of the season so far.

@ C63…you’re very close when you make the assumption that ‘hamilton just can’t win with me’. i did say he drove well and given that the mercedes is the cream of the crop what would you expect? as for the pass of the day, well i think that that little bonus should go to ricciardo but then again you would expect me to say that….wouldn’t you?

the mark of a true sporstman is to know how to be gracious in defeat despite the fact that you’d like to kill the guy who won. is it not? my comments are not bizarre. they reflect a truism. ricciardo by comparison to hamilton is a breath of fresh air. all of that aside, i am, for want of a better description ‘driver centric’ and for me that covers a great deal of different attributes that set the very best on top by way of discerning criteria. hamilton just doesn’t cut the mustard, for me that is. you are more than welcome to criticise me for my comments. it is all healthy debate.

@KC if Ricciardo beat Vettel to 3rd plqce from the pitlane and when Vettel started on pole- wonder what you would be saying.

I dont like Hamilton but quite frankly he has no peer in F1 at the moment.Daniel is right up there now with the rest – thats become very obvious now which is fantastic. Its funny what happens to great teams with great drivers. Mclaren with Hamilton and Raikkonen before him were winning every other race..Great drivers know how to get the car fast..& Ferrari next year will be much better with a different drivers input.

@KC
The reason I felt your comment was bizarre, was due to the fact you had focussed on the only possible negative from Hamilton that you could find – he wasn’t particularly chipper on the podium. You had completely ignored and indeed dismissed his astonishing drive from the pitlane to third ‘as what would you expect in a cream of the crop car’. Might I remind you his teammate was also driving the same ‘cream of the crop car’ and managed to go from pole to 4th. Hamilton had to fight his way through the entire field (for the second weekend in a row), on a track that is notoriously difficult to overtake on, all the while knowing that a mistake would likely leave him trailing his team mate by a significant margin in their fight for the WDC. Ricky, on the other hand, had pretty much nothing to lose, he also only had to come from 4th place on the grid. Please note that I am not dismissing Ricciardo’s performance in the race, but there is simply no comparrison in the pressures each driver [Ricky and Ham] were under during the race.

As for your mark of a true sportsman comment – it appears you are you saying you like deceitful people who don’t tell the truth and hide their feelings. Personally, I like sportsman that show their emotions – someone like Mcenroe, who smashes his racket because he is pi$$ed off with an umpires decision, or Senna who disappears straight to his apartment (still in his racing overalls) after crashing whilst in the lead at Monacco.
Hey, ho, different strokes for different folks I guess

If I’d been told by the team to let my teammate by, effectively ceding 15-20 points to him, had also been given the secondary strategy that may have made the difference between first and third place, and was expecting a very tense post race debrief because of it, I’d be a bit subdued on the podium too.

At least Lauda came out after the race in support of Lewis. I think his comment was something like “I wouldn’t have even acknowledged the order”. Plenty of class from Lewis today, as he had every right to say far more than “I was shocked” at the attempted team order.

Could that be because with a different set of tyres, a slight strategy alteration (which of course Merc don’t do mid race?) and not persistently asking him to let his slower team mate past, he knew full well he could have won that race?

Maybe, possibly?

Ok you don’t like the guy but find any others who pulled a drive like that….

One of the better race I have seen. We had action from the get go. Passing , crashes, pit stop errors, safety cars to bring changes at the front. Lewis, Alonso, Ricciardo, Rosberg, Vergne…many good drives, choosing the best out will be difficult. More of the same when the season returns is my hope. Great race. Marc

For all his good work, Hamilton really should have passed Alonso today and he should have passed Bottas last week.

Rosberg had the fastest car and yet his overtaking skills are questionable. He really doesn’t deserve to be a WDC.

Ricciardo- What confidence this guy has!!!! Half way through the mark, he said he can win this one and he did. Fresh tyres or not, overtaking is difficult in Hungary and Alonso and Hamilton could have very well defended their positions till the end.

Red bull has found their next super star.No reason for Vettel to continue in Red bull.I really doubt if they’ll develop car to his taste anymore or give him any preference in the race strategy.He should really look to join Ferrari in 2016

@ rohind…..a lot of people are trying to diminish ricciardo’s win by saying that he had the assistance of the SC. well that is what happens when random conditions impose upon a race. the safety car could’ve entered anywhere at any time. people also tend to forget that ricciardo’s advantage was, to a great extent, diminished by the second safety car.

the fact is that his team and he himself sniffed a possibility and he actually made the comment that he could ‘go for the win’ very many laps from the end. that was good thinking and strategically it played out but anything could’ve happened at any time to ruin that plan. the truth is, he made it happen. nothing in F1 is ever very easy and he had to put in a smashing drive to pull it off. a fact recognised by far more experienced and senior drivers at the very top of the F1 ladder. what i see in ricci is a lot of the best attributes that make alonso such a terrific driver. they do share some incredible abilities and that id=s why i see ricci, given a top car, will be a start in the future. likewise maybe bottas kyvat/ magnussen as well.

He seems to be an intelligent racer, seizing his opportunities at right moment.
True that Vettel had his work cut out with reliability problems and troublesome weekends
But more importantly Ricciardo hasn’t made a single mistake in the first half of this season. I wouldn’t be surprised if team principals vote him ‘driver of the year’ if he can continue the same form in next half of the season.

I’m particularly impressed by timing of the crucial overtaking moves.He pulled it off when Rosberg in a Merc couldnt do it. Most of the drivers have the potential to be fast and win races, when they have right cars. Even Maldonado has one race victory to his name. Much criticized Grosjean was very good in second half of last season. What separates true champions from the rest is the consistency with which they deliver their performances and ability to handle adverse situations. Ricciardo certainly has the potential

But he should very well watch out for Vettel in the next half. Even when struggling with the car, he seems to finish less than a tenth or two behind Ricciardo.
Now he seems to be getting more comfortable and confident in the car.If Vettel can recover his ‘luck’, second half wont be a smooth sailing for Ricciardo

Pit lane to podium for Lewis, and overtake of the day on Verne ( having just frightened Vettel off the road ) . How long was Rosberg stuck behind Verne?
Come on all you Hamilton doubters – I can’t wait to hear your spin on this race

The top three finishers were the right ones based on driver performance today, and each of them in unique ways.

Hamilton had a to-be-expected amazing job slicing through the field on a difficult circuit for overtaking. I think we saw the difference between him and Rosberg today. Rosberg struggled for almost a quarter of the race to get around Vergne. Hamillton came from two seconds back on the same driver on the same tires in two laps and made it work.

Alonso did an amazing job making the last set of tires last and getting to second. He did a great job of defending on Hamilton, who really didn’t have much tire life left either.

And then there was Ricciardo, who had the advantage in the final stint and made two briliant overtaking maneuvers to get it done.

Quite honestly, in terms of pure race craft, I think today’s podium may well reflect the best three in the sport right now. And I think if you put any of them in any other of the three’s situations today, the result would have been the same.

Nico may regret the safety car, but quite honestly, it was his fault he didn’t win today. There is just no excuse whatsoever for him not getting by Vergne over the course of a quarter of the race. Once Nico and Vettel were out of the way, Lewis had no problem whatsoever doing it. I think in moments like this, you see that Lewis has a certain edge on Nico. With that said, I think Nico is aware of this, but he is also aware that he can beat him, which is a certain strength in and of itself.

It will be interesting to see the Strategy Report because I’m not 100% sure what the right strategy was today. On balance you’ve probably got to conclude that Ricciardo’s “dry two stopper” was the way to go because he won. However, for a while I thought that Alonso and Hamilton were on the better strategy with their “dry one stopper” and I still think that Ricciardo made that strategy work for him with, as you say, his two brilliant overtakes on Hamilton and Alonso; it so nearly didn’t work out for him (and it didn’t really work out for the Williams drivers further back either). But yes, great drives all round and I also think we got the right podium in that the three best drivers of the day were on it.

That was a weird part of the race for Rosberg, where he lost positions after the first Safety Car and then couldn’t get past Vergne. I wonder if this was a combination of driver and car not working in harmony, because it looked like he was struggling big time with brake temperature to begin with, and then that maybe he was running too much wing. Was impressed with JEV too; he likes slippery conditions and showed it again today! You’re right though in that, whatever the reasons, Nico will be thinking “I’ve started on pole, my rival has started from the pitlane, there is no way I should have ceded points this weekend!” However, at the same time I disagree in that I don’t think he’ll let this get to him too much because he does still lead the standings, though only time will tell I guess.

I can remember the outrage when Vettel told Ricciardo ‘tough luck’ when Ricciardo was on a different strategy and the team asked for him to be let by.

I can remember the calls for Vettel to be disciplined by his team for defying a team order. I wonder if the same people will call for Hamilton to be disciplined? Nah.

And Vettel did let Ricciardo through a lap or so later. Hamilton just simply ignored his team order. Vettel MIGHT have cost his team 3rd place holding him up for ONE LAP. Hamilton CERTAINLY cost his team VICTORY by willfully ignoring a directive from team management.

This will be a championship with an asterisk against it for Hamilton should he win by 15 or less points.

Lewis and Nico are fighting for the championship, actually Lewis has closed the gap by not letting Nico through. I don’t remember what Vettel and Ricciardo were fighting for on that other ocasion you mention. Third? Points?

Good try when the reliability evens itself out 4 – 1 against lewis, then rosberg will be a worthy champ if he takes the crown, in the mean time, why doesn’t he actually try and complete an overtake move without drs assistance, there as rare as hens teeth

@ JB 64…..yes, that was very true. ricciardo overtook vettel on pure merit and it was beautifully excecuted. just like his overtake on hamilton was today. it could be rationalised even further by the fact that although hamilton’s tyres were older he had the faster car PU’s wise whereas ricciardo tyres were in better shape but he had a slower car PU wise. the cream as they say………

If Merc wanted a win they should remember to tighten up the fuel hose clips on their fastest drivers car…..quickest all weekend until his car gets toasted, then comprehensively thrashes his team mate. I always thought Rosberg couldn’t beat Hamilton in a straight fight….he couldn’t even make a pass on a Verge.

Once the constructors is done and dusted I hope they stop sharing data during FP in Merc.

Tainted cos he didn’t let his slower team mate thru?……….vettels are tainted cos webber had to be slowed down and certain stages during 2010 and 2011. The final two years red bull just wrecked webbers first five races and seb had a 60 point buffer from mark and job done.

Seb showed us again how good he is yesterday and rosberg is trying to reverse his way into a title…..go Deutschland

Webber admitted that?…….so even thou webber was leading the world championship with 3 round to go in 2010, he stated in an interview that seb hammered him?
That’s a strange statement to make……unless your using his quote to describe his 2013 season!?
Also, How many problems did mark have at the beginning of 2011?…..conveniently out of the running by Barcelona.

Vettel didn’t let Ricciardo through in China! I know Vettel likes to think he did, but Ricciardo passed him (after being told to pass him on the radio) into turn 1 as Vettel went wide. Vettel had been defending against Ricciardo for two laps before that, and forced Ricciardo to the outside along the back straight, just before he “let him through” on the pit straight. Did he have a change of heart within 3 corners?

The difference was that Ricciardo was all over the back of Vettel … Rosberg never got as close down the main straight, or on the run down to turn 2 (i.e. the main overtaking pts on the track). Vettel knew he was never going to be able to hold Ricciardo back there. Ricciardo finished the race 25 seconds up the road!!!

Mercedes cost Hamilton the victory in Hungary, and cost themselves a 1-2 finish, with a horrible and bemusing strategy call for Lewis. Rosberg was mugged by a bunch of drivers on Sunday – Magnussen, Vergne, Alonso. He couldn’t get past Vergne, which is what lost him that race. So you think he’d be making it past Alonso and/or Ricciardo? Rosberg is lucky that Kimi saw his ill-advised overtake attempt on lap 60, and didn’t take the line he was entitled to take, as it would’ve meant Nico dropping further back.

Wonderful race. Merc is missing Ross for his wisdom and judgment. He would not have fallen into the sad team orders blunder and I dare say his discipline would not allow so much finger trouble at Merc. He is seriously missed and me thinks Toto to not proving too too good this season.

I feel if Alonso had a merc equivalent car with the way he has been driving, he would be untouchable. Shame he doesn’t a car to always be up there fighting for wins. What a race and what a drive. Ricciado was also vey very very good today.

I really wanted Alonso to win, it almost would have been as good as Malaysia 2012. That said, Dan really did deserve this one too. I almost forgot how it felt like to have a heartbeat of 7 million and a bit for an entire race.

Off topic:James, next race is Spa, Ferrari (traditionally?) introduce some major upgrades to their car in Spa, is that going to happen this year too? The dutch commentator mentioned it pretty often that Ferrari are working hard on their 2015 challenger, but I don’t really see the point of that when we’ll have basicly the same rules for 2015.

Ferrari are poor on the straights! Did you not see Bahrain and Canada?
So in Spa and Monza they are basically going to be f*cked badly….and it wouldn’t be any better in Austin GP and in Brazil either. Suzuka can be tricky, Sochi the unknown, they can fight for podiums in Singapore may be, but they will need luck there though.

I have faith in Kimi for Spa. He is usually really good there. I´m not expecting him to win but I think he can be in the top 5. He did very good today despite he starting position. As for Alonso he is the other side of the coin. He never won Spa. But I hope both drivers can finish in the top 5.

Dire call by mercedes putting lewis on hards. He earned track position vs rosberg when he got past vergne. As a fan why having done that should he let nico past. It’s an unbelievable disgrace. Rosberg went from 1st to 4th today and lewis from last to 3rd. For me that shows where the talent is and I suspect a soft soft call for lewis would have certainly been 2nd. Both Ricardo and alonso were excellent today. What a race! As for the title lewis has had a nightmare since rosberg cheated at monaco and merc backed him. But lewis is only 11 behind. It’s likely nico will win through team order/ or subtle strategy calls such as to day but when all is said and done for the gap to only be 11 points rosberg must be cross he hasn’t been able to get much more distance ahead if lewis. If lewis gets to the front in quali and has equal luck he should do it- but there are other forces here and they were laid bare today.

I agree. I thought it was terrible when Rosberg was bleating on about being gifted a pass at a point where Hamilton could have taken the win without Alonso’s amazing job on the soft tyres….+1 Rosberg is only out there for himself.

That was the best race of the season and we have more races coming!! Next up SPA!! Congrats to Daniel Ricciardo. A great talent, a wonderful guy with obviously a wonderful future. His class of clean innocent racing is such a treat to see.

Even as a Nico Rosberg fan, I am glad Lewis did not let him through. Hopefully this incident will silence the mouths of the conspiracy theorists here.

Lewis did a good race for sure. But Rosberg did not do anything wrong even though he was beaten. You have to say, he was unlucky with the first safety car period and if weren’t for that, he could have won and Bottas would have made much more involved in that scrap at the front. But this day belongs to Lewis and he did show us what a good racer he is.

So happy for Ferrari and Kimi. Kimi’s gonna come back after the summer break strong. He’s good in Spa, so hopefully he’s gonna have a better weekend there. Master-Class driving from Alonso of course.

This GP will be remembered for years to come. Will always be one of F1′s great stories. Will it be a turning point for the world championship? I don’t know. But Rosberg, still has the momentum in terms of the points. Spa can play to Lewis’s strengths too. Lets see… can’t wait!

Indeed Nico was unlucky with the first SC but he wouldn’t have won without it: Alonso was also caught out by it (ROS BOT VET ALO was the order of the leading group when it came out, RIC was next and first to pit) but finished in front of him anyway.

I’m afraid that the strategy calls in the race are starting to lay the favouritism for Nico bare in the Mercedes camp. Up until now, I’ve not been a subscriber to this theory, but it’s looking more and more like Nico is getting a helping hand to the WDC.

No way should they have asked Lewis to move over.

Not so convinced on whether they gave him a bum call on the strategy though. I think that Lewis had a bit more wing in the car than most others, contributing to his inability to pass on the straights (though it resulted in some brilliant passes in the corners). The wet weather setup may haves hampered his final run speed if he’d switched to soft tyres.

Having said that, I’ll be very interested to read the analysis of whether the soft tyre strategy on Lewis’ car at the end would have made the difference between first and third. The speed differential at the end was quite staggering, with Nico gaining at four seconds a lap.

i csee what you mean but I don’t think mercedes are trying to help rosberg. they simply got it wrong. i think their in f1 to create a public image with the following words in mind, efficient, ethical, trustworthy and successful. helping rosberg unfairly goes against all of that so i suspect they’ll bend over backwards in attempts to correct their wrongs and rosberg will join them in doing so.

At least Mercedes know now that when they send that monthly million $ transfer to Lewis, he doesn’t race for them but for himself, even at the expense of a Merc win. Any insight into why Nico could not pass JEV in the middle of the race ? Surely, that is where the race turned for both Merc drivers.

Well,
this will be open war now. Hamilton disregarding team orders, and arguably Rosberg losing at least that third place because of it.
One can be sure Rosberg will not forget it, and any hope of harmonizing teammates relations at Mercedes is gone. This kind of relationship can only be detrimental for the team, so I am surprised they failed to force their orders to be obeyed. Can’t imagine this happening under Ross Brawn.

You are missing the point I am making.
Hamilton ignored team orders, and got away with it. It doesn’t matter whether the team orders were good, bad, or 50/50. From now on both drivers will know that the team orders are just recommendations which can be safely ignored. Opens a deep can of worms, doesn’t it?
Can’t imagine this happening under Ross Brawn.

Hami, what a recovering and talent to burn,though the two safty cars had help him,nonetheless he showed he has balls:
A, to drive hard and aim high.
B, tell his pit wall to go and jump.and I give him 10 points for it.
However Lewis must realise that there would be no glory around the corner at Mercedes, and its time for him for a sea change,simply stating for a good of Lewis Hamilton its time for him to make couple phone calls like R.D or LdM, both camps need the talent of Lewis Hamilton.

Way to go Danny boy Another popular win.
Great drives by all the front runners today. Very entertaining and fair racing.

“But he refused a Mercedes team order to let Rosberg past for strategic reasons, with the German needing to make one more stop in the final third of the race.”
I’m not a HAM fan but I dont recall the team telling Lewis to let Nico past. My recollection is that they said “Dont hold Nico up” or similar. Very different statements. To whit, he didn’t hold him up. I agree with the team order though the situation never came to pass. Maybe I heard it wrong or missed another radio message. Entirely possible at my place.

I haven’t looked at the WDC table for some time but Danny must be getting closer to Lewis these days? That crazy double points thing might just work out in a way no-one has considered yet

After today my thoughts were that we could be looking at another 2007 – the top team implodes amid much acrimony whilst someone else nips in at the end. I don’t want to see it, but RBR are renowned for their in-season development…

Haha. I was thinking more of Ricciardo sneaking into 2nd place at the end. That is, assuming his good form/luck holds out and that Mercedes continue to conspire against the non-German driver It’s not inconceivable that they are conspiring against him, Sir Frank did it to Damon if I recall correctly. Blew the car up regularly, blew tyres, that sort of thing

Danny’s had two wins, Hamilton 4. And unless my memory is failing me, apart from his two wins and 1 of Hamilton’s DNFs, Danny’s finished behind Hamilton in every other race? I don’t think Lewis has too much to worry about *just* yet.

Williams are slowly turning into a disgrace. Both drivers just letting guys past. At the A1 ring they did the same as in not fighting for the win. Disgraceful.

“We need to improve the show”. Nonsense Bernie. F1 viewing figures are down because if people want to watch all the races live they need a Sky subscription. Disgraceful. What, are the shareholders not happy because the TV viewing figures are down?

I’ve done a little more thinking, and the more I think about it, the more I think this race could be the turning point in the championship.

Nico had a chance today to deliver what, while maybe not a knockout blow to Lewis, but to definitely put him in an extrmely difficult position in the championship given that he started on pole and Lewis started from the pits. He could have put Hamilton in a position in which he had two beat him to wins four races in a row, at least, to take the lead. Instead, Hamilton claws three points back.

To be honest, Nico has no one to blame but himself for this situation. Sure, the safety car hurt him, but he was in a much quicker car than the guys ahead, and he spent a quarter of the race behind Vergne in the slower Toro Rosso. There is just no excuse for this. You have to get past in a situation like this and get away from the threats behind- not to mention to get after Riccardo for the win. Lewis was able to get the job done in the same circumstance on the same driver on the same tires, so in the end, Nico really dropped the ball at that point.

This is a huge boost for Lewis going into the summer break, when he’ll have a mental reset after the adversity of the past few weeks. And having the situation turn like this for him is a big blow to Nico. Because sooner or later, the qualifying trouble is going to end for Lewis, and when that happens, the momentum will turn and could well develop into another run like Lewis had at the start of the year. And when Lewis is in the zone that he was in at the beginning of the year, he is nearly impossible to beat.

After the ludicrous team order, asking Lewis to let ROS past, (which as Coulthard pointed out was both unfair on HAM and MUST have come from senior management), I believe it is now completey clear that the Mercedes team favour Rosberg for the WDC.

I just hope the British journalists in particuar will pressurise Mercedes into giving both drivers an equal chance, by devoting some focus and rigourous questioning of this issue in their blogs, tv and radio casts and in the printed media.

I felt that about Silverstone – Nico’s retirement was a 32 point swing in terms of points gap, and without that he was off into the distance, points-wise. Here, the result is perhaps 13 points worse than Nico could have got.

That was indeed an awesome race.. I absolutely cannot understand the negative comments that I have read from some of the posters on this site..
The racing this season has been the best Ive seen in a long time…It was nail biting stuff going on down there.. 100% Sport 100% entertainment….
If someone wants louder engines and thats the only reason they will stop watching F1 then they never really understood what F1 is all about…
Todays race was really the proof that this seasons formula has worked..Im not a fan of DRS but today it worked when it should have and didnt when it shouldnt have….Simply perfect….
I hope the rest of the season continues to be a cliff hanger like today…
F1… may the Force be with you….

The guys who got screwed over were the ones who had to do an extra lap (leaders) when the safety car came out- Bottas, Rosberg, Vettle and to a lesser extent Alonso ( kudos to him on a FANTASTIC drive).

The order got shaken up greatly benefitting those (Ricciardo, Massa, Button, Hamilton, Raikkonen etc.) who were at the right place at the right time to dive into the pits.

If that is what people like to see, why bother with qualifying, and lets just hold a lottery for starting positions? Or, start in reverse order from the results from the last race? Neither would be my preference, but it would spice things up and make things less predictable and be more “entertaining”.

Agree.
The safety car plain and simple ruined the race for some. Be much fairer to say that you cannot pit under the safety car. Sure Ricciardo drove a good race when on new tires against those on ancient tires the first safety car already having gifted him 7 places.

good idea luqa, the only problem is qualifying is such a spectacle on its own. they’ll need to find a replacement and the only replacement i can think of is to keep the qualifying as it is but use the results for a separate championship, qualifying championship, for the race each driver starts at a different position in each race.

just watched the race on BBC and chnqnge my mind about the man of the day. I think hamilton aced it, head and shoulders above the rest alonso and ricciardo also impressed but I am most impressed by the mercedes fitters. They managed to fully fit a car for hamilton to race in without a single failure. this shows they can do it when it counts. i wonder if the fitter who was involved in fitting the fuel lines of the car he qualified in had anything to do with the car he raced in.
rosberg was on poke and then asked the team to ask hamilton to let him by. tut tut!

Howard, I am also happy to see Ham ahead, but it is not like he did it in a straight race. If there was no safety car to put Rosberg in a disadvantaged position, Nico would have won it by a huge margin. So it is not like Hamilton was a super hero and managed to overtake Nico in a straight fight. In the race….he was more lucky than Rosberg

You should check the positions after the safety cars.
Yes they allowed the field to bunch up but all the really did was negate some of the additional 20 odd seconds the pit lane start cost. Let alone the lack of a warm up lap.

Maybe I’m off base, but I think the HAM/ROS pairing will end sooner than later. I think HAM went to Mercedes thinking he would be top driver as he was at McLaren and rightfully so as he is a better driver and one time champion.

But ROS has been steady if not exceptional and finds himself in the chase though it is mostly because of HAM’s misfortune and some qualifying blunders. HAM is no doubt frustrated as he should be well ahead in the WDC.

Today HAM was ordered, right or wrong, to move aside as ROS had a better shot at catching RIC with better tires. Not only did HAM not let him pass, he ran ROS wide and could have taken him or both out of the race. Afterwards he made it clear he is driving for the driver’s championship and shouldn’t have been told to move aside.

I think it’s fair to say there is more than ill feelings between the two to the at this point and it’s unfixable. It will be interesting to see if Mercedes re-sign HAM to a contract extension soon as stated or re-access the situation because of today’s refusal by HAM to obey team orders coupled with tension between the drivers.

Think about it, Merc is such a dominant force this year….they will win the title with either Lewis of Nico….there is no need to ask one to let the other driver go when each point makes a massive difference. Especially with Ham suffering from poor reliability of the car more than Nico. This request was out of place today. They are fighting each other for the title.

Hamilton was ahead of Rosberg and they could have brought Hamilton also in for the soft tyres and maximised points. Clearly Rosberg was given the optimal strategy today as two stints on soft tyres was the fastest strategy.

2014 – definition great race – when the huge multi-national branding company, (selling automobiles), does not win the race.
Daniel is establishing himself as a aggressive, AND very respectful passer; he was looking really good today; great job Daniel; not that luck (of the good kind) hasn’t fallen upon you, but to your great credit, it hasn’t fallen upon you very many times when you didn’t take full advantage of it, with corresponding great racing.
Who doesn’t like that kind of driver?
The soap-opera of the huge branding company (selling automobiles) continues with the expectable drivel coming out of it.
As for the ‘controversy’; who’d have thought, that would happen?!?
Hopefully, the hyper-molly-coddled babies can momentarily realize that the man just shuts up, and gets on with it; and follows that as the superior approach.

Clarifications:
Nico and Lewy: It is the way it is. They getting 3rd and 4th today, instead of any order of 1st and 2nd, makes almost negligible difference to the outcome of the World Constructor Championship; so people suggesting Lewis was ‘out-of-line’ for not obeying teams orders are completely daft; if Lewis had moved over, THEN I would have doubted his credentials to be world champion. Let’s put different personalities in the same driving situation, say, Niki Lauda, because he’s close at hand and relevant, yet; just imagine Niki slowing down, losing at least 2-3 seconds on the lap, to let his only championship rival, in a tight… WARFARE, gain place on him?!?
Can we see this complete folly clearly now?
It is the way it is, in opposite situations, both drivers would have behaved the same as their opposite, today.
Best to get over the [word for a female dog]fest, and look to the pertinent aspects of appreciation of the sport.
Alonso ‘the complete package’: Alonso drove a great, fautless race, again; I know it becomes easy to over look the consistent superlatives of his driving; but today, he had a. a(nother) great start, b. the best strategy calls on the grid, and c. made a stretch strategy work, even almost won the race; so he did good, but, in the end, Ricciardo won the race, on an inferior strategy, with at most, similar power, probably less, and Lewy from the pitlane, and then smacking it into the wall, got third! Incredible!
Intelligence/Strategy – McLaren/Williams: shamefully bad; I feel it likely that the top people at both these venerable organizations agree.
The entire top ten would have been completely different in complexion… Mac, we need to get it together, or not even a competitive Honda power unit (far from certain) can get you up the to the sharp end! Will: this is the time to shine; it will be extremely difficult to hold this kind of competitive advantage over most of the rivals into 2014; it has got to be better; go for it, good luck.
Kimi: still hoping to see an eclipsing trajectory before then end of the season, but from the outside, it looks toxic in the red trenches; would love to see you in the MAC-Honda for another WDC, unfinsihed business as McLaren, for sure.

Yes congrats to the honey badger on a memorable win. The race once again showed Ricciardo has the tools in his arsenal to do the business and his biggest strength being his calmness in the eye of the storm.

Another good performance was from Alonso as he brought the car home in P2.

In a way, it was a disappointment for Alonso as it’s always soul crashing to lose a win with so few laps to the finish.

Lewis had another battling drive from the back and I was surprised he made as many places as he did on this track.

For sure the first lap incident had the fans’ hearts in their mouths as the race looked all done after he brushed with the walls.

Glad to see Massa finally get back on the score board, likewise, Kimi must be happy with his best scoring position of the year.

As for Mclaren, it was unfortunate the rain clouds had other ideas otherwise with their cars staying on the inters, it would have been a genius stroke if it begun chucking down again.

Overall, the strategists earned their wages this weekend as they made the tough decisions.

As always LH delivers. I know JAllen and Brundell wont like it but today was a turning point in the championship. Nico was on pole and Lewis started in the pit lane behind another car!!!!!???? Yet somehow he ended up in front. Congratds to Riccardo, he is one for the future foe sure.
I said some time ago that Paddy and Toto are not up to the job and this weekend has been a howler for those two. This could be sqeeky bum time for them if the board feel they can,t manage the team or reliability issues. Personally I wouldn,t let them run a bath!!

What were Williams doing? I know the Red Bulls were slightly faster this weekend but Massa lucked out in coming out basically 2nd because of McLaren’s gamble and then stick him and Bottas on much slower tyres. Not only did Ricciardo pull out a massive gap on the softs compared to him, I’m pretty sure he lasted longer on the tyres. The mediums were never going to last til the end of the race so surely two soft stints after the safety car was the only thing to do? They’ve got the car just not the people, Kimi looked better this weekend and they could finish behind Ferrari somehow.

Mercedes should be asking themselves why, when one driver and his strategy team had made the best of the situation, should they be asking that driver to gift a position to the other driver and strategy team who had made a mess of things. Rosberg was not massively faster, nor was he putting any pressure on – the situation would have been different if he had shown his nose and it had been chopped off and it was also obvious he was on a strategy that would have given them the win. The win was irrelevant to Mercedes in the grand scheme of things, it was not going to make a difference to the championship.

If I were Hamilton I would be disappointed in the lack of support and the unwillingness to give him a little bit extra support – the team, having let him down on a number of occasions have something of an obligation to look after his interests, if only so that Rosberg will be able to say that he beat Hamilton if he wins the championship, rather than Hamilton was beaten by the team.

On the subject of letting your teammate through, in the 25 years i’ve watched F1 it appears that once you comply with the order you are then on a downward spiral. Not only do you conceed the place in that race but you are admitting to the team put your resources behind me not the other guy. The fans, media, drivers, mechanics, bosses, etc lose the confidence that have the killer instinct we hear the champions have. Irvine, coulthard, barrichello, massa….. Senna vs Prost at imola an agreement to not pass after first corner senna broke it and went on to greatness. Coulthard vs hakkinen an agreement in oz coulthard lets him by (having done so race before in jerez) coulthard becomes good, hakkinen a great. The 1% difference between good and great! I thought hamilton summoned it up after the race when he spoke about racing for himself, selfish to some but difference between good and great, maybe!!!

Why Alonso to a lesser extent? It hurt him at least as much as it did Rosberg, Bottas and Vettel. Even worse maybe for he drives a slower car to catch up. But he beat all those anyway. The difference is the driver and such performances is what I believe people want to see.

When I saw damp track I was hoping for a Vettel win as this looked like one of rare opportunities for him to get a win this year. But even on a weekend when he appears to be faster than his team mate he doesn’t make it work. I’m disappointed in his driving today, and in strategy decisions on his side of the garage (again). Why was running medium tyres even an option today, for anybody not just Vettel? Weren’t they 1,5 sec slower than the softs?

Ricciardo on the other hand made all the right calls, raced fantastically again and I’m really starting too root for him. For sure my favorite driver of the next generation – Bottas, Magnussen, Kvyat, etc. He is just brilliant. Did you hear him say after 1st or 2nd pit stops “guys we can win this”? I like his determination.

Another day in the office for Alonso, great drive by him considering he was one of the 4 guys who lost positions because of the 1st safety car.

Great recovery by Hamilton, can you imagine Rosberg only leads by 11 points after all the bad luck Hamilton had? This championship is still Hamilton’s to lose, he was the favorite until day one, and still is in my opinion.

Oh, and those team orders by Mercedes… I’m not a Hamilton fan and don’t believe in conspiracy theories, but telling him to move over for Rosberg was really not OK. At least not in today’s situation when he was fighting with Alonso and Ricciardo for the win.

they gave lewis the weaker strategy eventhough he was leading.they said they would let them race,then tell lewis to let nico past.the bottom line is,they let lewis down yesterday,and didnt give lewis a race winning strategy,eventhough they could have.they seemed to focus more on nico winning.and at best nico might have finished second.on sky they confirmed it.

Really, really poor form by Merc today.
It’s clear to everybody that the WCC is sewn up. At the stage of the race when the team told Hamilton to move over, it was clear that the two were competing for final finish positions. Why on earth would they ask one driver to move aside in those circumstances? Had the plan be for Rosberg to stop again, he still would have emerged having to chase down Alonso and Ricciardo in the same way Hamilton had to. Why give one driver the advantage over the other in that situation?
In all of this, the most embarrassing thing was suggesting that he move over on the pit straight. What more can you do to undermine your own stance of “letting your drivers race”?
I don’t think anybody important has put any stock in the conspiracy theories going around but silliness like this won’t help them.

a) Toto Wolff is a lightweight
b) Rosberg must appreciate that he cannot expect everything in life to be handed to him on a plate. Someone who could not even overtake Vergne does not deserve any favours.

How big a result was that for Ferrari today? Alonso nearly winning; Kimi getting a solid points finish from 17th. You could see how happy the whole team looked in parc ferme, and how relieved Marco Mattiacci was in his interview with Ted Kravitz. It was such a big morale boost for those guys in such a tricky season. It must have felt like a critical championship victory at Maranello! Alonso did brilliantly and I was intrigued by his tendency late on to take wide lines into corners, sometimes nearly missing the apex completely. It looked as if he was trying to “make the corner longer” and, in so doing, trying to avoid chanelling too much energy into the tyres so that they didn’t (quite!) fall off the cliff. If so, it was a visible demonstration of that clever racing brain at work once again.

Regarding the Mercedes team orders situation, I actually understood it because it was a way of trying to maximise the team result and, furthermore, teams like Force India do it quite often. However, on an individual driver side there was no incentive for Lewis to let Nico through, and in that context I was happy that he stood firm and didn’t obey the order. Toto Wolff was commendably diplomatic about this in the post-race interviews and I hope the team don’t hold it against Lewis in the briefings behind closed doors either because he is battling for the title after all.

Re:how relieved Marco Mattiacci was in his interview with Ted Kravitz. It was such a big morale boost for those guys in such a tricky season. It must have felt like a critical championship victory at Maranello! Alonso did brilliantly…

Yes, for sure, Alonso (and Kimi too) drove brilliantly, but Alonso was rightly muted in celebration. He knows this was the oddball race with pure luck, downright risky strategy bringing him the podium. The car still sucks and there’s little chance of improvements this year.

As for Marco, his rudeness to Ted was terrible. Never seen ANY team boss being so disrespectful to media. You can tell he’s become the butt of jokes – he doesn’t have a clue about the sport. He’s hurting Ferrari. Get him out of there! (Bring ineffectual Stefano back!)

It was an epic race and I loved every second of it. I don’t believe Merc are trying to engineer a Rosberg win. Think of it from their perspective. They did not expect Rosberg to be overtaken by Vergne and Alonso. They fully expected Rosberg to at least get back past Vergne. They never expected Lewis to sail past Vergne so quickly.

The Merc call came because they expected Lewis to let Rosberg past, Rosberg to build a gap to Lewis but close on the frontrunners. When the frontrunners all came into the pits, Lewis was supposed to be in first. He was supposed to have a fast closing Rosberg and Ricciardo behind him.

The idea was to have a Merc 1-2. Would Merc have told Rosberg to hold station IF Lewis had let him past and was in first at the end? I have no idea but Lewis clearly never believed that they would not be told to hold station hence why he didn’t let Nico past.

Let’s be frank here though, if you ARE faster, close up a bit more. It was as if Nico was all over Lewis, then when the radio conversations came he pretty much eased off. Why ease off? If the guy ahead is told to let you past and you draw level in the DRS zone, you will be let through.

The way in which they approached Vergne sums them up for me. If Nico started that far back in Germany or today, he would not get near the podium. Nico is almost as fast as Lewis when chasing him or in clear air but when it comes to overtaking, he simply lacks that instinct.

Nico has now said he didn’t ask for the order in the first place. Why do people think he lied? Sure he whined on the radio after that but how do we know he asked for it in the first place? If he did, I never caught that.

Still it closed up the title race, showed Merc have by far the best car still and it promises to make the bad blood between the two Merc drivers boil a bit more. Something inside me tells me though that if it were Lewis behind Nico, not only would Nico do the same thing but Lewis would find a way past. Nico would rather both finish and get him one step closer to the title. Lewis would pass or crash I think. Not against Alonso, Dan, Vettel or anyone else but just his direct title rival.

Thanks for your posts and keeping this site up. If it were not for this site, I’d keep my F1 opinions to pub mates. This is the only site I use to chat about F1 and give feedback because you are spot on with your informative posts without bias and because you keep trolls, fanboys and troublemakers out of sight Thank you.

Navigate to Settings > Discussion. Make sure enable threaded nested comments are enabled. If there is a setting that allows the depths of threads, maybe increase the number. That way I could reply to Marcus rather than being locked to replying to you while talking to Marcus. Slashdot has a brilliant system.

Also look at getting a WordPress plugin that allows threaded comments. It would make the site much easier to navigate.

I don’t think Nico asked for Lewis to move. But he asked why was he not moving over (maybe after he was told Lewis will move over). I first heard Mercs asking Lewis to move over for Nico. And in subsequent laps, I heard the relay from Nico asking Mercs why wasn’t he moving over.

To me it looked like Nico was up for the pass, then was told Lewis would move and then went into passive mode. He should have been all over the back of Lewis and Lewis would have had to let him pass. Nico is supposed to be the intelligent driver. He knows if he tries to pass and Lewis crashes into him, Nico wins as he is ahead in the title race.

I don’t believe Merc have come out and said they did not expect Rosberg to pass Vergne or Lewis to not pass Alonso. Factor in that both have THE fastest car by quite some margin. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

A very nice post! I do understand your POV and from which direction you are coming from and I might as well reply in the exact such manner, however…
What happened today it is pretty clear if you look at the big picture. The points difference between Ham and Ros is not that big. I do understand the strategy issue, but it does not the team had to interfere and ask him to move over. The fact they did simply means one thing!!!
Now my personal comment to your about Ros whining..well my friend it’s called politics!
If you think that in a multi-hundred-million dollar business politics aren’t dictating stuff on any team, then I’d be disappointed if you’d still think in the same way you did above.
Rosberg is not driver that will make history, he is just consistent and brings points home. But slowly I have the impression that he somehow plays by the same book as Alonso… when something doesn’t go his way…chaos it is!!

Politics is one way of looking at it. i think Nico just realises he cannot beat Lewis if both are at their peak form. I expect after the break Lewis to get pole positions one after the other. We will see what Nico is made of.

Great post, but surely the best way of a Mercedes 1-2 is too put Lewis on the same strategy as Nico?

Mercedes have a huge pace advantage on fresh tyres that still have life, they lose some of their advantage when the tyres are old and used.

So for me it was the wrong call to give Lewis an alternative strategy, where he would be vulnerable on old tyres.

Lewis proved in Germany that two quick stints on fresh soft tyres works, he would have got second had he not pitted so early (guessed wrong on safety car)
He could have had a chance of actually winning had the safety came out, when in my opinion it should have for Vergne.

From Lap 42 Ros was closing the gap to Ham at anything from 2 – close to 7 tenths of a second. Then laps 51 (when the first call came via TV feed) – 53 he loses around a tenth per lap to Lewis. Laps 54 & 55 before Ro’s stop os lap 56 they were very evenly matched.

I’m sure Merc was thinking let’s get Ros out of the dirty air and in a position to even further close the gap to the leaders at that stage.

Then when all the dust has settled after all the pit stops he will be in a position to chase them down for a victory. So they were aiming for the win with Lewis 3rd or 4th. Not a bad call for the team, but not the best for ONE of the guys fighting for the championship.

In hindsight they should’ve known BEFORE the race that they maybe do not need to baby sit the manufacturers championship and in theory should be able to let the guys race each other for the rest of the season.

I understand both sides.

As an after thought: Rosberg was told Lewis was going to let him through. Asking about it on the radio didn’t to me sound like he was demanding or moaning.

But, let the 2nd half of a great F1 season roll on and let’s hope it’s as good as the first half.

I think Mercedes did not plan to have both cars in the same bit of the track. By all accounts, they shouldn’t have. Rosberg was always supposed to pass Vergne easily and be up front with Alonso. That was the plan. It never worked out because Nico cannot pass the way Lewis can. Merc were blind to the fact that Lewis starting so far back in these races yet making the podium is due to the car in free air (as with Nico) coupled with Lewis and his ability to overtake which Nico simply does not have.

The point is, Rosberg was only catching Lewis because Mercedes decided that Nico would do 2 fast stints on the soft tyres.
They thought Lewis would last on the hard tyres, but this is stupid from a team who are so much faster on fresh tyres.

IF Mercedes had put Lewis on softs and given both drivers te same strategy, Lewis and Nico would have both been a lot faster and would have most likely got a 1-2

When Lewis and Nico pitted for the second time, Lewis was 3 seconds ahead on track, I Lewis would have been on the same strategy as Nico, both of them would have finished higher up.

The big mistake was by the team, they got the strategy wrong on Lewis, which ultimately cost both drivers.
Yes Alonso stopped Lewis from building a gap and possibly winning, but worn Tyres neutralise pace to some extent, which makes the strategy for Lewis even more baffling.

Hamilton will have his karma: ignoring the orders of the team. Nico will do the same next time and it may prove costly for Hamilton then.
Ferrari had a chance to pit Alonso under SC, but they missed it. So they are as goofy as they can be.
It is good that Alonso did not win the race, otherwise some journalists (in BBC) and fans here will claim Christ has been reborn in F1.

“It is good that Alonso did not win the race, otherwise some journalists (in BBC) and fans here will claim Christ has been reborn in F1″ – Seems like you are very happy with the fact Alonso have not won the race

[mod] Yes i have read much of your posts here and i can understand you people despise Alonso at every comment or chance.

Yet you cannot discount the drive who Alonso have put in hungary for the fans. That was a stunner From ALonso and drive of the season thus far in F1 2014. There is no substitute for performance and when it comes to the Results none of other pilots can deliver like Alonso does in this planet.

One of the most exciting races I’ve watched – though not as exciting as the German GP last week!It was actually quite a complicated race to follow. Most of the time I didn’t understand why they were making pit stops when did made them.

James, your writeup definitely explained and simplified things for me.
Do you think Mercedes panicked and erred in not stopping Rosberg earlier for his final stop? Ricciardo pitted on lap 55 and he won! Nico was stuck behind Lewis from lap 47 till his stop at 57. If he had stopped with Ricciardo, that would have allowed him to beat Lewis and be in contention for the win, don’t you think?

Hi James, can you please look into why Lewis wasn’t given the same strategy as Nico, when he came out 3 seconds ahead of Nico after the second pit stops.

Lewis was Mercedes best chance of a win, wether that was overtaking Alonso quickly so he could build a small gap, rather than lose time behind Alonso or by Putting Lewis on 2 stints on the softs instead of 1 stint on hards.

We can all be very thankful that the terms Formula 1 and Motor Racing are as meaningful and relevant to each other as they have been of late.

What a great display of driving from so many, held at such a frantic pace and rate of change. Hungary will never be the same again.

So many different scenarios could have played out. If only Nico / his crew had realised Lewis would not relinquish time and had pitted earlier. He would have been out on his last set of rubber (albeit not fresh) a lot sooner and for a lot longer. He only needed an extra lap or 2 to have passed probably both HAM and ALO. He was gaining up to 3 seconds a lap over last 8 laps.

Certainly not without racing incident and issue either – Nico and Daniel suffered from technical issues that hampered their progress. I do not know what to make of HAM on the radio several times saying that something was wrong: be it a vibration, brakes, or a warming derriere. It didn’t seem to slow him down or delay him and it seemed that as soon as it appeared, it had disappeared. Nothing like airplay, I guess.

Well done to Ferrari, a long deserved reward. I really admire Fernando Alonso for his ‘craft’. It brings great credit to the sport in my view to watch him so genuinely congratulate RIC in parc ferme. Indeed he does this quite often and being a proud Aussie – though half German – he’ll be doing more of it!!!

Contrast the behaviour of certain other team mates recently, where frankly, I think certain people need to pull their heads in and focus on the sport and not on their bruised egos.

ecclestone should use this opportunity to get the government to pay for the london grand prixg because they have refused to fund the british grand prix every time they’ve been asked in the past and now they think they can ask f1 not to go to russia? where’s the logic? full attack ecclestone!

Just simply the best race from a wet track to drying up, what more can we ask for.
How did Alonso run the soft for 31 laps was amazing. DODT.
Good that Lewis didn’t let Nico through, as a fan the WCC is not of my concern.
Ric was fantastic too. Every race seems to be better than the last, no complains at all.
Never a dull moment through the race and the safety car deployed was appropriate with so much bits pieces of carbon fibre all over the accident areas. I rate this race 9 over 10.

For Hamilton: The greatest opportunity to be a racer and to show it. Hats off so far.

For Mercedes: A close call on image as any reliability issue happening to Hamilton is amplified..

For the Merc Future: Without Hamilton would become a really difficult branding strategy.

For the F1: To maintain a team advantage by blocking developments need good ideas to preserve the essence of the competition. Only aero engineers can race together with pilots? The rest are racing alone for the next year, what a pity..

For any brand: to be the fastest of the solwest F1 cars and to have others unable to do anything is not such convenient I think…

I’m a fan of Lewis Hamilton’s racing, but there is no way at all I could believe Mercedes would deliberately favour Nico’s results over Lewis’s. Do you guys have any idea of the disparity between these two driver’s pay cheques? Do you think Mercedes just do that for a laugh? If they were so fixated on having Nico win the championship, why on earth would they have gone to all that effort of getting Lewis? Surely they’d have stuck with Schumacher and kept the all-German line-up – or have gone for any other driver at all to act as a number-2 for Nico?

I think it was a pretty foolish request to make considering Lewis’s sensitivity and appalling bad luck this year – but I do understand where they were coming from – they were trying to maximise results for the team. However – Lewis was bang-on – Nico was nowhere near him and it would have been crazy for Lewis to lose ground to Alonso by slowing down 1-2 seconds for Nico.

I understand people thinking Mercedes wouldn’t pay Lewis all that money then favour Nico.

But think about it this way, Lewis is one of, if not the fastest driver on raw pace, he is very good at getting the best out of his car, especially I’m qualifying.
When they signed Lewis, they needed a driver to help make that bit of difference when it’s very tight with another team

But this year, they have the most dominant car in living memory and would win with any driver barring reliability.

Meaning the reasons they hired Lewis aren’t applicable this year, so a German team which is guaranteed to win both championships, favouring the German driver is not that unbelievable is it?

After the second round of pit stops Lewis was ahead of Nico by 3 seconds.

Mercedes split strategies, why?

Lewis had all his tyres available, yet it was Rosberg they have the aggressive strategy too, even though he was behind on track, had less new tyres available.
(Before anyone says Nico was ahead, when Lewis came in too pit, he was well ahead)

They messed up massively by not giving Lewis the same strategy an in the process gave up a more than probable Mercedes 1-2

Lewis was in the best position and most likely to win, but he was badly let down by the team, who backed Nico, with an aggressive strategy.

The question to ask (and answer) is this: IF it were ANY other team’s car other than a Mercedes, would Nico Rosberg have asked the question: “Why isn’t he letting me past?” Did he radio to the Mercedes pit wall and request that they put a timely and courteous phone call across to Toro Rosso’s HQ in the UK to ask why Vergne wasn’t ‘letting him past’ for over 10 laps? Why did he feel entitled to be ‘let past’ Hamilton, as opposed to actually DOING what is necessary to MAKE a pass? Hamilton had accepted that he wouldn’t make it difficult for him IF he could even close up. Being 0.6 seconds behind in a corner does NOT a passing situation make. Almost all the time on the straights, he could NOT catch up with Hamilton. Rosberg is undoubtedly a ‘competent’ Formula 1 DRIVER but by no means a RACER. And that’s the difference between them.

Imagine if Alonso on a completely different strategy to his teammate caught up to the back of Raikkonen. Imagine if there was a win at stake for Alonso if Alonso was let past his teammate. Imagine that this is a drying track. To have Alonso and Raikkonen battle for position when they are on completely different strategies would be madness.

Ferrari would expect Alonso to be let through and their would be hell to pay if Raikkonen didn’t.

Ferrari would do it in an instant. Remember they are on completely different strategies. It’s standard procedure for a teammate on a completely different strategy to be let through by a teammate if they are on completely different strategies.

I genuinely doubt that Alonso would be faffing around behind Raikonnen for 8 laps, begging to be let past and moaning in confusion about not being ‘gifted’ a position. He would utilize his RACING skill and force the issue to MAKE (note this key verb) the PASS. Or there would be a(n unlikely) collision between teammates. We saw it earlier in the season, when there was even less at stake, in Spain just this year.

For the record, please remember that NOBODY, least of all Hamilton, STOPPED Rosberg from actually EXECUTING a PASS. At that stage of the race, while strategies were still unfolding, Hamilton promised that when Rosberg got near enough, he WOULD LET HIM PAST. HE (Rosberg) DID NOT get anywhere near enough. Remember again, that merely getting close due to the ‘concertina’ effect in corners DOES NOT a passing opportunity make.

The only button Rosberg should have been pressing in Hungary was the DRS and/or KERS button, not the radio button to whine! He has just signed a contract extension with Mercedes to RACE. He should do what he’s being paid to do – RACE (anyone of the remaining 21 drivers on the grid, and that includes his own teammate)!

It’s hard for me to believe in conspiracy theories, but Mercedes certainly isn’t helping their case if they want to silence the critics. I would understand if Nico was on Lewis’ tail for a whole lap and then the team orders come in to let Nico by, but Nico wasn’t that close. Why should Lewis slow down to let his main competition for the championship past? You could say that Mercedes was just interested in earning more constructor points, but they already have that in the bag. I’m not one to buy into conspiracies, but that is kind of odd. Also, it seemed to me like Nico didn’t really try to pass Lewis in the first place. He had the faster tires when he caught up to Lewis, so why didn’t he at least stay within a second to use DRS? Expecting another driver to let you through isn’t racing, if you want to win then make it happen.

With all the Hamilton fans breathing down Mercedes’ neck, i wonder what can Mercedes possibly lose by sacking Hamilton ? Its not like Hamilton is fighting for the title in a substandard car. The car is 1.5 sec/lap faster than the rest., and you can put a Chilton in it and he would be fighting for wins. The cars in todays F1 is such a huge differentiator that it is hard to judge if the best driver is winning. Hamilton’s career when his car wasn’t creme’de la creme is quite ordinary. From that perspective, there has been only one guy who has consistently overcome his car deficits and punched way above the weight of his machine – that is Fernando Alonso. If i were Mercedes, i would let Hamilton go at the end of this year and hire the Hulk. As long as Mercedes keeps building cars this fast, why bother with all the drama ?

I was appalled by Mercades orders for Hamilton to let Rosberg passed. I am a fan of Rosberg and dislike Hamilton BUT I feel every driver should be allowed to race, so why should Hamilton move over, especially as he’s challenging for the championship. One thing I do find annoying though is the way everyone is rightfully on Hamiltonian side, when there was the same situation earlier in the year with Vettel & Ricciardo everyone called Vettel a sore loser and a spoiled brat, why?. I will always side with the driver who is right, it doesn’t matter if I like the driver right is right.

Let me get right a driver who comes from pit lane to 3 rd is no good
His team mate goes from 1st to 4th is better
Guy came 2nd from 5th with a rb spinning from 4th is the greatest of all time but his team mate in the same red car came 6th from 16th without mention
Oh & last years champ was super lucky not to hit the wall but ended way back Yet his team mate won the race beating 2 better cars.

Who says Rosberg is better than Hamilton? It seems on wet tracks Hamilton’s is a win or bin effort. Very quick, and risks a lot more against other cars, which is why he could pass Vergne and Rosberg failed – not as good at wheel to wheel too. The safety car helped Lewis, hindered his team mate, but Rosberg was still ahead on track, then couldn’t overtake Vergne. Poor. Vettel’s well timed spin helped Hamilton.

Alonso was quick in the early stages, quick throughout. What about Raikkonen? Slow at the start, as usual, his slow driving on a damp track in evidence as Hamilton sailed past. Then Hamilton couldn’t get around Alonso later. As for coming 6th from 16th. The cars between those positions are going more slowly than those racing 1-5. Also, Alonso would have found it difficult to go from 5th on the grid to -5 at the finish.

Vettel made a small mistake and paid the price, and was also unlucky with the safety car. Not a drive any more mistake filled than Alonso’s, who jumped the chicane, or Hamilton, who spun on the approach to turn two on the opening lap. Ricciardo drove well again, and had the element of luck with the safety car. He made decisive overtakes to take victory.

@james you just keep digging deeper holes for yourself. Raikkonen spent half his race fighting Massa in a Williams that is fastest in a straight line. He spent about 15 laps in the middle of race setting fastest lap times. Prior to that he was passing several cars in wet conditions.I dont know what more you want. Fernando was fighting brilliantly at the end of race with shod tyres before that he had the lead of the race by virtue of pitstops & if anything he had clear air more than anyone including Raikkonen ever did!..Raikkonens battle with Massa were very big even if they werent televised he was many times within1/2 sec And running wide trying to pass him on t1..I watched it closely on the app when it wasnt covered on tele..Alonsos battle was brilliant in its own way for fighting the few at the front..but to say Raikkonens drive was not impressive is very sighted.

“Raikkonen slow at the start as usual”- he went from 16 to 13 in the first lap & he has made more ground on starts than half the field this year..Also after the first pit stop Raikkonen was consistently lapping faster than anyone- his end of las stint was second Only to the Merc..please get your facts’right.

Not slow off the line, or on the first lap, just in the first stint. I particularly meant his slow driving on a wet track as it was obvious what Alonso was doing at the front.

He was taking his time coming through against inferior cars. Also, it is easier to make up “more ground on starts than half the field this year” when a driver starts further back than their car’s performance should allow, be it Raikkonen’s fault or someone else’s in the team. Kimi must have profited a lot with the safety car.

Stint lap times can be notoriously unreliable, so being second quickest at the end of a stint only proves he was in clean air between a Williams and Red Bull, and had good tyre life left. Nevertherless, he drove well overall on Sunday.

Wonder how Rosberg will respond in the remainder of the season if he has half the bad luck Lewis has had in the first half – not well I suspect. He is not in the same league as Alonso or Lewis. Good enough to be in F1, but just lucky to be in the best car at present. How good is Daniel Ricciardo. Looking forward to more great races (who would think we would have said that about Hungarian GP) and more great driving – especially from Dan

I think all the talk of “conspiray against Lewis” is rubbish! With the money involved running & developing these cars,& the need for both cars to run at the front to compete for the manufacturers championship, which is what they are racing for,not the glory of an individual driver. I think a lot of people are missing the fact that Mercedes are faultering. The brakes are definitely being overworked on them since the removal of the FRIC,and the pressure is starting to show. I’m starting to think that after pre-season testing Mercedes took a 2008 BrawnGP type view that they should “make hay while the sun is shining” by winning as many GP’s as possible until thefield closed the gap,and have thrown new PU componentry at each race,and now that they are “recycling” components to avoid grid penalties,the “True”reliability” of the car is starting to show,e.g. rear brakes are suffering taking extra load to ease braking load on the MGU-H,(probably the only Merc PU weakspot).
This season is going to have a big sting in the tail end,when teams have to start taking Grid Pen’s for new PU components,so maybe the reduced load that the Renault PU has(less power=less load) they may end up coming up trumps.

Great drive by Dan, he could be right in the championship if the FIA would give him back the points from the Aussie G.P., double points at the end of the season, who knows a couple more break downs for the Mercs and the door opens wide….Go D.R…..Will RBR give prioroty to D.R. now that he is the only one at RBR that can really have an impact on the championship???

Hello Nickh. I’m responding to your post “Lewis beat Alonso in the same car as a rookie after stunts from Fernando such as deliberately messing up Lewis’ qualifying in Hungary and swerving towards his pit crew on the main straight at Indianapolis because he couldn’t overtake Lewis.”. Couldn’t find it here (perhaps, still on que).

Yes, agreed. When he came to F1, his drives, skills, mentality, focus were outstanding. No other rookie before or since has made such a great impact on debut. Usually, rookies start on sub-par machinery. Though Lewis started on the fast 2007 McLaren, I won’t hold that against him. He definitely rattled Alonso then, no doubt.

A thing to note, perhaps, is that Alonso is way more mature now at Ferrari than he was at McLaren or Renault. It wasn’t just his McLaren days, Alonso even alleged his own pit crew (at Renault) of conspiring against him in his title fight against Schumi.

The important question is, how much more have each driver (Hamilton and Alonso) matured since then. From an outsider’s point of view, I will go with Alonso. He keeps a low profile, rarely make mistakes, and gets the most out of the car each weekend. There’s a good reason he’s called the best out there.

In my opinion, Lewis has allowed himself to be distracted by an entertainment management company interested more about branding him for image and lifestyle propagadtion, rather than as a Formula 1 racing driver. Like I said, this is my outsider point of view. I think this has affected Lewis consistency behind the wheel. Again, just an outsider F1 fan opinion, nothing more.

On another note, It was clear for everyone to see Nico’s left brake disc overheating and smoking. Perhaps, he was in management mode to just do enough to hang onto Verne and hold Vettel back, who did just enough to stay within DRS range of Nico, while holding Hamilton back. Hamilton also did just enough to stay within Vettel’s DRS range behind Vettel. Hamilton positioned for passes against Vettel, but made a good decision not to overwork his machinary at that early stage of the race. When opportunity came, he pounced. He had a better race than Rosberg that day. Such is the formula in F1 right now. Outright comparisons are usually not meritable.

There’s a good reason why some have complained that F1 has become too complicated. This is true in my opinion. The American idiom, “What you see is what you get”, doesn’t apply to F1 right now. Yes, the racing is good in 2014 – lots of fights. Someone outshines the other. It usually looks great, but the same can be circumstantial. Why? Too many variables at play. There’s a good reason why Hamilton hasn’t been consistently 4-5/10ths of a second quicker than Rosberg this season throughout. Sometimes, one driver has an upper hand with the variables working to his favor, sometimes with the other.

Let’s put ‘em all in Jim Clark’s Lotus 49 and see the drivers shine without too many variables affecting results.